Investment Focus

Scalable solutions for real-world problems.

 

Our investment focus:

  • High growth, strong return business models

  • Creating high impact at scale

  • Stand-out, mission-driven, black / female-led or diverse founder teams - helping to correct the existing funding bias

We also invest in:

  • Transformative business models in key industries, driven by teams that don’t (yet) include under-represented founders

  • Stand-out black and female entrepreneurs with highly scalable business models that aren’t necessarily “transformative” – but do create inspiring success examples

We don't invest in:

  • “Social only” enterprises: impact, but insufficiently strong growth / return prospects

  • “Profit only” business models: non-diverse teams with strong growth business models without high impact

Entrepreneurs

Stand-out entrepreneurs: we handpick entrepreneurs driven to achieve significant business success and impact at scale

As experienced entrepreneurs we know how essential the entrepreneurial team is.

Stand-out entrepreneurs for E4E are:

  • Mission-driven
  • A little bit crazy : think differently and are willing to change the paradigm
  • Focused on the business – energetic, driven, grit
  • Business savvy - can make money
  • ‘Can do’ – action-oriented, agile, experimental
  • Eager for personal growth - open to advice and learning every day
  • Experience & maturity: know what it takes to create success at scale
  • Balance in team (personalities and expertise)
  • Personal connection E4E with Founders

Stand-out entrepreneurs come from all backgrounds and sexes, and we are open to investing in all. To address the existing funding disparity, we actively seek to support black and female entrepreneurs.

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Impact and returns

Scalable models - solving real-world problems: we will invest in 12-18 inspiring entrepreneurial teams and highly scalable business models that have high societal impact.

Industry sectors:
  • Food
  • Health & Safety
  • Education
  • FinTech
  • Sustainable Energy & Water
  • Mobility & Digital Access
Investment themes include:
  • Empowered people: digital transformation & financial inclusion
  • Smart cities: sustainable & liveable
  • Smart value chains: sustainable & efficient
Growth business, strong returns:
  • At least 4x money / 30%+ IRR per investment case *
  • Potential to be SA industry leader and / or significant international potential
* We invest in highly scalable models – in SA and beyond - and therefore typically expect higher growth than 4x / 30% IRR on our investee companies over the investment period. We will encourage reflection on the balance between shareholder returns and value creation for employees and consumers.
High-impact, at scale:
Significant positive change in focus industries & themes – e.g. :
  • Measurable impact on SDG’s
  • Business models transforming key industries
  • Inspiring examples of 'diverse’ entrepreneurial success
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Investment stage

We invest in and accelerate the growth of pre-series A to Series A stage companies. Typical first investment of ZAR 5-15m, with ability to follow on into the growth phase.

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