South Africa

Hivos Impact Ventures is an impact investment management company that operates impact funds aligned with the philosophy of its Foundation; creating impact as well as the essential financial return.

With offices in the Netherlands, Zambia and South Africa, we manage impact funds that hold impact creation as important as financial return.  

We invest in early-stage companies that can scale on finance and impact, and  partner with International NGOs, such as our founder, Hivos Foundation, our South African Shareholder, LifeCo UnLtd., as well as fund shareholders WeltHungerHilfe, Cesvi and Ayuda

AgVentures is Africa’s leading agrifood tech investor. AgVentures invests in privately-owned agrifood companies with the potential to transform the African agrifood sector due to their innovative technology and dynamic entrepreneurship. 

Acorn provides a platform for high-net-worth individuals, institutions and funding partners to participate directly in private equity, which is currently done through an investment holding company, Acorn Agri & Food. Prior to Acorn Agri & Food, the Acorn General Fund One was a limited liability partnership that might be replicated in future investment vehicles.

Entrepreneurs who are considering reaching out to can read the below for an understanding of the aspects we pay close attention to when considering investments.

Qualitative Considerations

• Competent and honest management teams with

4Di Capital is a venture capital fund manager focused on high-growth technology venture opportunities in the Southern and Eastern Africa region.

4Di Capital is an independent venture capital fund manager based in South Africa’s “Silicon Cape”, specialising in high-growth technology venture opportunities, at the seed, early-and growth-funding stages. The fund manager has offices in Cape Town, South Africa and Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. and funds are managed by the GP partnership team of Anton van Vlaanderen, Erik van Vlaanderen, Justin Stanford and Laurie Olivier.

The Transnet Enterprise Development Hub, in collaboration with the Department Of Small Business, Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), South African Revenue Services (SARS), Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP), and Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is a coordinated government effort focusing on enterprise development.

Services that SMMEs can expect from the Transnet Enterprise Development Hub include:

• Business development and support services
• Financial support
• Procurement advisory services
• Central Supplier Database

The Entrepreneurs Hub (eHub) seeks to be a leading reliable and value-adding entrepreneurship forum by connecting aspiring entrepreneurs with start-ups, while expanding start-ups’ horizons with expert guidance and mentorship from industry leaders.

The CDI is a craft and design sector development agency with a mission to develop capable people and build responsible creative enterprises trading within local and international markets.

The CDI is a non-profit company with over 20 years of success in developing creative people, small businesses and the craft and design sector at large in South Africa. The CDI is a catalytic agent of change in the sector, and passionate about developing appropriately skilled, resourced and digitally proficient practitioners who can successfully leverage opportunities for growth and development.

The CDI

Silicon Cape is an NPO and an ecosystem enabler for tech-enabled startups in the broader Cape Region of South Africa. We work to connect stakeholders, curate ecosystem data, amplify the stories coming out of the ecosystem and advocate on behalf of stakeholders through our membership programme.

Far Ventures is a Cape Town-based start-up studio which builds start-ups from scratch, along with outstanding entrepreneurs.

Our expertise is in creating start-ups, investing the first capital, and recruiting talented entrepreneurs to scale the business and prepare it for its first external fundraising round.

The Durban Innovation Hub is a technology incubator and business advisory firm that seeks to promote a vibrant and collaborative ecosystem by connecting public and private enterprises with gifted African inventors, creative business technologists, data analysts and behavioural scientists.

It is a civic technology lab creating a community of technology entrepreneurs by providing an enabling environment and equipping them with functional tools to make their ideas work.

Services:

• Product and service design
• Research and testing
• Hackathons, sprints and co-creation
• Testing and usability