Nadya Eka Lestari
TechInAfrica — SA fund Hlayisani Growth Fund, that aims to make future investments in African SMEs, is considering 12 potential new deals, fund principal Brett Commaille said on an occasion.
“Most of them have an element of tech that is inherent in most scalable businesses,” added Commaille. He also said that further announcements will be announced soon.
The fund, which is led by former Nedbank chair Reuel Khoza and which includes former FNB head Michael Jordaan as its investment committee chair, released a statement that it had invested R200-million in six investments since becoming operational in January in an undisclosed amount.
The statement follows the announcement in September that the Hlayisani Growth Fund and Knife Capital’s KNF Ventures had invested $2-million (more than R29-million) in Cape Town edtech company, Snapplify.
Commaille stated that the R200-million is the sum total of commitments made so far and that this amount had already been distributed in investments. He said more commitments are in the final stages of approval.
He expects the fund to make the first close of R500-million to R700-million but pointed out that the ultimate aim is to raise capital of R1-billion by December next year. He also stated that the fund is not aimed at startups, but rather at growth-stage firms that have proven their business model and that are currently looking to expand locally and internationally.
He confirmed that any investment the fund makes will be considered 100% black, as the fund is a black-owned fund.
Commaille said, in an earlier statement that the fund is primarily focused on the information, communication and technology (ICT), and manufacturing sectors. When it comes to technology sectors, the fund is focused on three verticals, including agritech, edtech, and medtech.
The fund has so far invested in GoMetro’s Flx, Snapplify, Opennetworks, Sudonum, Ikeja and the Lean Enterprise Accelerator Programmes (Leap).
Source: ventureburn.com
