Khula Lula

Khula Lula is a micro-financing VC that aims to address the existing gap of South African women involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, by bolstering female entrepreneurship and underrepresented tech startups.

In January 2020 we opened our applications for the first time to African women in the startup landscape to apply for R200 000 in funding for their pre-seed e-commerce startups. We encountered so many challenges along the way, which included navigating the changes our country was facing as a result of Covid-19. This did not stop us from pursuing our penultimate mission of providing microfinancing to a startup that aligned with our vision. We an overwhelming amount of applications, which we sifted down and shortlisted, up until we finally selected a founder to invest in. The form of private equity Khula Lula pursues is active in nature, and as a result we form an integral part of the running of the startup we selected to invest in. We are currently working along side the team of our first acquisition in scaling and raising series A funding.

Excess capital held by Khula Lula, that hasn't been allocated for private equity investment yet, is invested in public equity markets, namely the JSE, NYSE, NASDAQ and SEHK. Our investment strategy is focused on obtaining direct exposure in tech securities that have the characteristics of growth stocks that are trading in emerging markets. Our Public equity portfolios are split into an Asian market portfolio and African market portfolio. In 2021 our intention is to expand more into the US tech market.