Top 10 Food and Beverage VC Funds & Investors in South Africa (June 2026)

Portfolio highlights

• Novel Farms — Novel Farms uses microbial fermentation to develop cruelty-free, inexpensive and tunable bioscaffolds for the production of cell-based meat products. Novel Farms mission is to craft the taste and texture of the gourmet meats and transform cell-based meat consumption into a sought-after culinary experience for the next generation of consciouseaters.
• Minus — A sustainable coffee alternative, combining the taste, look, and smell of coffee with a smaller footprint to ensure a brighter future for coffee and the planet.
• Unicorn Biotechnologies — Unicorn Biotechnologies is developing a fully automated manufacturing platform to enable cellular agriculture producers to seamlessly scale products from the lab bench to supermarket shelves. Our full stack platform combines hardware, software and analytics to completely automate cellular agriculture manufacturing, reducing costs and increasingproduct quality. By providing a clear path to scale cellular agriculture from grams to tons, we will improve human and planetary health and drive the transition to animal free agriculture.

Portfolio highlights

• ACWA Power — ACWA Power is a developer, investor, co-owner and operator of a portfolio of power generation, renewable energy and desalinated water production plants.
• Evren — Evren is a platform for generating power from renewable sources.
• International Islamic Liquidity Management — International Islamic Liquidity Management is an international organisation established by central banks, monetary authorities.

Portfolio highlights

• POW! Foods — Puta en gandia
• Veggie Victory — VeggieVictory is Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company bringing people a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle through plant-based meats and meals.
• High Time Foods — High Time Foods provides shelf-stable and moldable plant-based meat alternatives to foodservice operators. Their first product is a plant-based chicken alternative that does not require refrigeration. The product is moldable and can be used in any cuisine as a substitute for chicken.

Portfolio highlights

• The Index — The Index is a platform of cutting-edge technology used by clients in the fashion and retail industry to grow their companies and enhance their digital footprints
• De Novo Foodlabs — Producing non-animal dairy proteins using precision fermentation
• Smart Separations — Smart Separations is a limited company based in London UK that has patented an innovative microfiltration technology to produce ceramic filters with self-assembled controllable pores of uniform size in the range between <1 and 50µm. This tight pore size control and range availability will revolutionise the field of MF with a cost-effectiveproduct.It aims to be the world’s leader in MF and particle separations technology – filling the void gap that exists in the market nowadays.

Portfolio highlights

• 3X4Genetics — Scientifically-robust nutrigenomics (personalised nutrition guided by your own genetic stack). Practitioner education & genomic reporting
• Lipidio Pharmaceuticals — A Unique Approach to Treating Obesity Precision Targeting of the Skin Exploiting the skin as an endocrine organ Historically regarded as a protective barrier organ, the skin is now recognized as an active endocrine organ capable of synthesizing, and secreting diverse hormones and signaling
• SEngine Precision Medicine — The Search Engine For Identifying Personalized Cancer Treatments.

Portfolio highlights

• Vycarb — Vycarb is a Brooklyn-based firm that enables decentralized carbon removal through real-time, autonomous, and direct detection of CO2 in water.
• Plasmaleap —
• Hachiko —

Portfolio highlights

• Abela — Abela is a mobile payments platform that allows the underserved to make and receive payments.
• BriefCo — BriefCo is South Africa's first and only legal cost consultancy leveraging technology. We utilize our own secure online platform to allow for the digital delivery and storage of all documents, thereby reducing the significant costs associated with printing, delivery, and file preparation. ​
• AgrigateOne — AgrigateOne is an online platform that enables openness between growers and buyers and gets data about agriculture and marine logistics.

Portfolio highlights

• Livestock Wealth — Livestock Wealth is a crowdfarmingTM company that allows people to invest in livestock and earn from sale of the offspring.Their unique CrowdFarmingTM concept allows individuals to share the facilities of a commercial livestock farm while our experts look after their cows on a day to day basis.Cows have been a source of pride and a store ofwealth in Africa for centuries. The wealth in cows is based on something real – beef. The company enables anyone to be an organic beef farmer.

Portfolio highlights

• Opalia — Opalia is introducing a new era of dairy: functional, delicious, and sustainable dairy made from mammary cells.
• Hooked Foods — Leading the transition to a harmless seafood system by serving healthy vegan seafood for everybody to truly enjoy.
• Cultimate Foods — At Cultimate, we are transforming the flavor and aroma industry with natural innovative ingredients.

Portfolio highlights

• Rentoza — We champion giving you access, affordability and flexibility to explore tech on your own terms
• Mia Healthcare —
• ProfitShare Partners — Business funding solutions with ProfitShare Partners. We specialise in Short Term Asset Finance to help empower SMEs.