Top 10 Retail Startup Investors in South Africa

Last updated: Aug 2024 A list of 10 angel investors and VC funds that invest in Retail startups based in South africa. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Retail companies from South africa. We update this investor list every month.

Top 10 Retail Startup Investors in South Africa

Investor	Retail South Africa investments
Vinny Lingham	2
Llew Claasen	1
Icon Ventures	1
Savannah Fund	1
Crossfin Technology	1
Ignition Partners	1
Michael Jordaan	1
CRE Venture Capital	1
Vumela Fund	1
Newtown Partners	1

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Investor list

Vinny Lingham is Co-Founder & CEO at Civic. He was the founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card app that allows customers to buy, store, send and redeem gift cards conveniently from their mobile device. He is also the founder of Yola.com, a web development and hosting company that enables users without prior programming knowledge to developwebsites. Vinny is the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) and was also a finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) and ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). He also previously founded Clicks2Customers, which also won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006. He has previously served on marketing advisory boards for Nasdaq listed Valueclick and Yahoo, was also selected as an Endeavor “High Impact Entrepreneur” in 2006. Vinny studied a B.Com (Information Systems) at the University of Cape Town.

Investment focus

Blockchain, Internet, Cryptocurrency
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
United States, South Africa, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Glif — Interoperable tools for the Filecoin network
Afterparty — Afterparty is a technology company behind the new Web3 platform enabling creators to directly monetize and manage NFT collector relationships
Collectibles.com — Collectibles is the Home of Collectors: Cards, Comics, Coins, Stamps and more. Connect with Likeminds, Trade and Showoff your Collection for free

Llew is the Managing Partner of Newtown Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm that actively invests in emerging, disruptive technology startup businesses. Founded and run by internationally successful entrepreneurs, Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen, Newtown Partners has an entrepreneurial focus that goes beyond investment. The team operatesout of offices in Cape Town, South Africa and Sunnyvale, California (Silicon Valley).Llew is a go-to-market strategist with almost two decades of senior management experience in cryptoassets (since 2012), digital product management and digital marketing.He co-founded Clicks2customers (rebranded to www.nmpidigital.com) with Vinny Lingham, now a global digital marketing agency with annual billings in excess of $100 million and Synthasite (rebranded to www.yola.com).Llew is also the former Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, the original, the oldest and the largest Bitcoin advocacy organization globally, headquartered in San Francisco, U.S.Llew has a Masters degree in the Management of Technology & Innovation and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Investment focus

Logistics, Health Care, Mobile Apps
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

Chefaa — Chefaa is a GPS-enabled pharmacy benefits platform connecting patients & pharmacies nation-wide to help patients manage all their pharmacy needs. Chefaa uses big data, data ming & machine learning
SweepSouth — Book a home cleaning online from your mobile, tablet or computer. SweepSouth connects you with a cleaner in minutes. Cleaners are experienced, reliable, efficient and insured.
Clockwork Logistics Systems — Intelligent Delivery Automation for the Global Supply Chain - Clockwork digitizes processes and extend existing systems into the people who do work to deliver goods across the global supply chain through a software only digital platform.

The road to success is long. Re-defining an industry requires passion, perseverance, and true grit. At Icon Ventures, we help entrepreneurs with true grit navigate the journey to become icons of tomorrow.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Enterprise Software
Series C, Series B, Series D
United States, Israel, Canada

Portfolio highlights

Midi Health — Expert care for women 40+. Made for midlife. Delivered by experienced clinicians. Covered by insurance. Book a visit today.
Ripcord — Ripcord is a robotics company that combines hardware and software robotics via an integrated SaaS offering. Its focus is on smart robotics digitization, smart content management with AI, and helping enable RPA and business processes.Ripcord is based in Hayward, California, and is backed by leading investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,Google Ventures, Lux Ventures, Legend Star, and Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak.
Nomad Health — Search travel nurse jobs nationwide. Earn more money, haggle-free. Receive expert support without the pushy tactics of a traditional recruiter.

Savannah Fund is a seed capital fund specializing in US$25,000-US$500,000 investments in early stage high growth technology (web and mobile) startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially focused on East Africa, the fund aims to bridge the early stage/angel and venture capital investment gap that currently exists in Africa. The Fund expects toachieve this objective by combining capital with mentor networks both in the region and from Silicon Valley via an accelerator program and a follow-on independent seed fund.The fund is managed by an experienced and technology savvy team that have founded companies or are actively involved in angel investing or having run successful accelerator programs in past but also understand the unique Subsaharan African environment. They are backed and supported by both local, regional and international networks of angels,venture capitalists whose expertise we can draw on to help startups succeed and scale to fully fledged regional or global companies.They believe in the potential for Africa to become a global technology innovator by creating sustainable for profit companies that create jobs and make an impact.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, FinTech, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
Kenya, United States, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

Oze — OZÉ brings African small businesses into the digital era. It is an app that makes it easy for businesses to track sales, expenses, and customer information. The data is analyzed to provide tailored recommendations, reports, and business education. If the entrepreneur needs a little extra support, an OZÉ Coach is just a click away. As they are usingOZÉ to manage their business and learn how to run it better, we are learning about them. Using this data and machine learning, we can predict their credit risk and provide them with affordable capital from our banking partners. With over 20,000 registered users, OZÉ is the largest online community of SMEs in Ghana. The most exciting thing is that OZÉ works; 97% of businesses that have used OZE for at least 9 months are growing or profitable or both!
Root — Launch digital and embedded insurance solutions with omni-channel distribution.
Afropolitan — Afropolitan is building a Network State to unleash the maximum potential of Africans around the world. Are you interested? Join us with your email.

Crossfin invests in FINTECH solutions to enable growth for economies in Africa and beyond. Crossfin invests in high growth and established cash generative businesses, offering investors a blended exposure to technology investments in Fintech.

Investment focus

Payments, Financial Services, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series A, Private Equity
South Africa, United States, Russian Federation

Portfolio highlights

Adumo — We are your expert partner in payments, enabling you to seamlessly and securely accept payments in-store and online with our true omni-channel experience. Never miss a sale with South Africa's largest independent payments processor.
VantagePay — VantagePay provides white-label payment and technology solutions to the Banking, Telco, Financial Services, and Consumer Product Industries.
Momint — Momint is the Web3 investment platform of the future. The safest and easiest to use NFT marketplace in the world. Discover the real-world potential of NFTs.

Ignition is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity. With over $2B under management, Ignition invests in emerging and future leaders in enterprise software.Ignition brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, technical expertise, and global operational experience. Ignition'spartners are proven business leaders who have built some of the world's most successful businesses of the last two decades, including Microsoft Windows and Office, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless and Starbucks.Ignition helps entrepreneurs by turning their early idea into a business, to hiring the right team, providing the right industry and functional insight and connections, to growing the business strategically, globally, financially, to realizing the best ultimate outcome, Ignition is ready to go the distance.

Investment focus

Software, Enterprise Software, SaaS
Series B, Series A, Series C
United States, Canada, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Jupiter Intelligence — The Trusted Leader in Climate Risk Analytics. Learn about our best-in-science solutions.
Carbon Robotics — The Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder solves one of agriculture's biggest problems: weed control. Laserweeding kills weeds without herbicides or tilling by harnessing computer vision and thermal energy to identify and destroy weeds at the meristem. It's healthier for crops and land, and safer for farmers.
Blockchain Monster Hunt — Blockchain Monster Hunt develops an NFT collectible game that lives on multiple blockchains. It is a multi-chain metaverse game that connects people from different blockchain communities. It allows users to play and earn in an abundantly diverse world of monsters

Michael Jordaan, the former banker now heads up a private investment company, Montegray Capital and lends a strategic-hand to various businesses, including as Chairman of Wines of South Africa (WoSA), Chairman of consumer data buro, Compuscan and as Director on the JSE. Michael also actively invests as a partner in AngelHub Ventures, a SouthAfrican based Venture Capital Fund.In 2014 he co-founded a coding apprenticeship program, ProjectcodeX, to grow highly skilled software developers to fuel the digital economy.

Investment focus

SaaS, Education, Financial Services
Seed, Series A
South Africa

Portfolio highlights

VALR — Buy and sell bitcoin, ethereum & more | Pay anyone for free with VALR Pay
Snapplify — Snapplify is at the forefront of edtech solutions in Africa, and specialises in enabling digital learning for individuals and institutions via the largest digital educational marketplace in Africa. As a global edtech company, Snapplify strives for radical inclusion to level the playing field and equip individuals across emerging markets with theworld-class tools they need to collaborate, innovate and thrive. Snapplify’s technology is used in other educational products to facilitate collaboration throughout the educational community.Snapplify for Education’s award-winning platform is already a top choice for institutions integrating digital education into their classrooms. From software to support, Snapplify provides institutions with everything they need to create a secure, collaborative e-learning environment for students. Snapplify’s robust 24-hour-access digital-library solution offers thousands of free ebooks and widely applicable, curriculum-approved educational content supplied by partner publishers from across the globe. Snapplify’s diversity of device integration allows schools to use its products on the devices that they already have access to, without having to invest in costly digital infrastructure upgrades. Snapplify’s solutions are industry celebrated and globally recognised for their innovation in technology.In order to achieve its educational goals, Snapplify has built strong relationships with diverse partners around the growth of its ebook, e-textbook, and device catalogue, and partnered with international publishers and other key stakeholders to meet the demand for widely relevant, curriculum-compliant digital educational content. As a socially minded company, Snapplify is committed to supporting others and creating sustainable change through collaboration and innovation. Snapplify empowers, inspires, and uplifts teachers via Teacha! (a media hub, resource marketplace, and careers portal for educators); is the digital content partner on a project that delivers technology and e-learning to public schools in South Africa’s Gauteng province, and runs impact programmes through the Snapplify Foundation.Snapplify originated in South Africa, focusing initially on the South African education and digital content industries. Since its establishment in 2012, the company has grown and expanded into new markets in Africa and the United States, with offices across South Africa, as well as in Nairobi, London, Amsterdam and New Jersey. Snapplify is backed by AngelHub Ventures, a venture capital company backed by former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan and the Harris family, as well as international investors. In 2019, Snapplify secured $2 million expansion capital from venture capital firm Knife Capital, and empowered African investment manager Hlayisani Capital’s Hlayisani Growth Fund.Snapplify for Education’s award-winning platform is already a top choice for institutions integrating digital education into their classrooms. From software to support, Snapplify provides institutions with everything they need to create a secure, collaborative e-learning environment for students. Through Snapplify’s e-learning and digital library solution, Engage, educators can share teacher-created, multimedia resource materials with students; administrators can manage the access and permissions for multiple student and staff accounts; schools can host their own 24-hour access digital content library (which comes with over 50 000 free resources including study guides, e-textbooks, past exam papers for multiple curricula, children’s books in African languages and more); and students and parents can purchase prescribed e-textbooks. Snapplify’s diversity of device integration allows schools to use its products on the devices that they already have access to, without having to invest in costly digital infrastructure upgrades. Snapplify’s solutions are industry celebrated and globally recognised for their innovation in technology.
Real Time Wine — Share your wine moments. Real Time Wine is the social wine discovery app for everyone who enjoys wine, not just those who understand it. [In App Stores NOW!]

Founded in 2015, CRE Venture Capital invests in early stage tech companies that are levered to Africa. CRE is headquartered in the New York metro area, with a regional office in Lagos, Nigeria.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
South Africa, Nigeria, United States

Portfolio highlights

Sabi Am — Sabi is Africa's largest B2B company, & we are digitising informal trade via our platform. We access markets hard to reach and ensure ease of distribution, & are the No 1 FCMG supplier in Africa.
Sukhiba — Sukhiba is a decentralized community-based commerce platform.
Stitch — One API integration for all online payments across South Africa. Accept Pay by bank, debit + credit card, cash, manual EFT, debit order and crypto. Orchestrate + reconcile digital payments across methods and send payouts

Vumela was established in 2009 by FNB Business Banking and Edge Growth. The objective was to create an innovative model for the development of a sustainable and a financially and operationally independent investment business which invests in high growth small, medium and micro size enterprises with good economic and impact returns.Vumela wascapitalised in 2010. Within the first four years, we’d invested R90 million into eight high growth SMEs, and created a total of 400 jobs. They launched their second fund in 2015, after a further investment of R100 million from FirstRand and R127 million from the Jobs Fund. Within the first year of launching this second fund, we’ve committed R43 million to five investments that are expected to create over 1800 new jobs.The first fund of its kind in South Africa, Vumela’s main goals are to invest in and develop entrepreneurial companies in order to help alleviate poverty in South Africa by creating jobs, and to generate a return for its beneficiaries: the Shalamuka Foundation and the FirstRand Group.