Savannah Fund Makes First Investment In South Africa

Written by Kevin Mwanza

Jun 12, 2014

Savannah Fund, a seed capital fund specialising in US$25 000 to $500 000 investments in sub-Saharan Africa, has made its first move into South Africa, buying into two Cape Town-based start-ups.

The fund, which already has investments in East Africa and West Africa, has invested in e-commerce site BabyGroup, an online shop and information service for new parents, andWyzetalk, a social business platform developer.

“South Africa is now one of our key markets in addition to East and West Africa. For us, it’s a big step into realising our vision to build a truly pan-African venture fund and positioning ourselves to assist and connect start-ups across the continent,” Savannah Fund says in a statement.

“Our first investment, biNu — started in Sydney, Australia — recently opened an office with a current staff of five in Cape Town. That means three start-ups in our portfolio are now present in South Africa,” it says.

Savannah Fund is the lead investor in BabyGroup’s Series A funding round, which includes strong local investor participation. “With the investment in BabyGroup, we continue our thesis to invest in the e-commerce space and on the Africa retail transformation representing about 40% of our portfolio in capital deployed to date. South Africa is the most advanced e-commerce market on the continent in terms of readiness, market size and payments and delivery infrastructure.”

Its investment in Wyzetalk is part of an R8m funding round with Clifftop Colony, a Cape Town-based investment advisory firm focused on private and illiquid assets in Africa.

“After scaling in South Africa, we look forward to helping Wyzetalk expand across sub-Saharan Africa as well as connecting the company to Silicon Valley.”