Top 10 Community Startup Investors in South Africa (October 2023)

Portfolio highlights

• Octiv — Octiv is a well-known platform for gym management software.
• wamly — Streamline your hiring process and save 70% of your hiring hours with Wamly's our one-way video interview software.
• VoxCroft — VoxCroft is making the world a better, safer place with population-centric intelligence.

Portfolio highlights

• Personera — Personera is a technology company focused on the development of Facebook applications and personalized products. Personera's unique platform allows brands to offer their communities a variety of branded print products or digital downloads, easily ordered directly from the brand's Facebook fan page and fully personalized with their socialnetwork content. Personera's platform is white-labeled and completely customizable for any unique brand identity. Products include calendars, photobooks, cards, and posters, and are available in professional print versions or digital downloads. All of their products include shared content between the brand and the individual consumer, creating a one of a kind keepsake or merchandise piece for every customer. Implementing Personera on websites or Facebook fan pages (or both) is easy. All it requires is installation of an app by adding a new tab to a fan page or embedding a line of code onto a website. Personera handles payments, printing and delivery via their global network.Personera's business model works on a per-sale revenue share basis, so there are zero setup fees for clients. They have a global network of commercial print partners that manage physical production and delivery of the products, ensuring high quality, fast and reliable service worldwide. Personera makes it easy for brands to monetize their Facebook page while engaging their fans with personalized product offerings. The Personera personalized products platform has been used by a variety of brands including leading magazines, musicians, celebrities and consumer focused companies.
• Swiftly — Harness your public transit data with Swiftly's urban mobility solutions to make your city's mass transportation move more efficiently.
• Appstores.com — Appstores is making it easier for consumers to find apps by giving small and large niche publishers and API/platform companies the tools to showcase apps most relevant to their users.

Portfolio highlights

• Oze — OZÉ brings African small businesses into the digital era. It is an app that makes it easy for businesses to track sales, expenses, and customer information. The data is analyzed to provide tailored recommendations, reports, and business education. If the entrepreneur needs a little extra support, an OZÉ Coach is just a click away. As they are usingOZÉ to manage their business and learn how to run it better, we are learning about them. Using this data and machine learning, we can predict their credit risk and provide them with affordable capital from our banking partners. With over 20,000 registered users, OZÉ is the largest online community of SMEs in Ghana. The most exciting thing is that OZÉ works; 97% of businesses that have used OZE for at least 9 months are growing or profitable or both!
• Root — Programmable insurance that you can integrate into your product or service with ease
• Afropolitan — Afropolitan is building a Network State to unleash the maximum potential of Africans around the world. Are you interested? Join us with your email.

Portfolio highlights

• Releaf — We are industrializing food processing in Africa. We've led 1000+ smallholder farmers to provide food factories with >7.5 million kilograms of quality crops.
• MarketForce — MarketForce connects Africa’s informal retail outlets and consumers directly to suppliers of consumer goods and financial services by digitizing orders, delivery, and payments with the aim of solving the last mile distribution challenge.
• SHYFT Power Solutions — SHYFT builds industrial-grade IoT and integrated software to connect and intelligently manage distributed energy resources (DERs) in markets that struggle with resiliency. SHYFT is pioneering the development of integrated decentralized power systems in emerging markets like Nigeria, leapfrogging over traditional central infrastructure and enablingDERs to scale and support existing but unreliable grids.

Portfolio highlights

• Inoxico — Inoxico is a provider of business-to-business credit risk solutions. We combine quality data and cutting edge technology to deliver predictive analytics.
• Kombo King — Kombo King Ventless Fryer Tech removes the need for plumes of steam & the constant eye of an inconsistent employee to Revolutionize & solve the frying industry!
• Kusini Water — Kusini Water builds water treatment systems from nanotechnology and macadamia nut shells.

Portfolio highlights

• Personera — Personera is a technology company focused on the development of Facebook applications and personalized products. Personera's unique platform allows brands to offer their communities a variety of branded print products or digital downloads, easily ordered directly from the brand's Facebook fan page and fully personalized with their socialnetwork content. Personera's platform is white-labeled and completely customizable for any unique brand identity. Products include calendars, photobooks, cards, and posters, and are available in professional print versions or digital downloads. All of their products include shared content between the brand and the individual consumer, creating a one of a kind keepsake or merchandise piece for every customer. Implementing Personera on websites or Facebook fan pages (or both) is easy. All it requires is installation of an app by adding a new tab to a fan page or embedding a line of code onto a website. Personera handles payments, printing and delivery via their global network.Personera's business model works on a per-sale revenue share basis, so there are zero setup fees for clients. They have a global network of commercial print partners that manage physical production and delivery of the products, ensuring high quality, fast and reliable service worldwide. Personera makes it easy for brands to monetize their Facebook page while engaging their fans with personalized product offerings. The Personera personalized products platform has been used by a variety of brands including leading magazines, musicians, celebrities and consumer focused companies.

Portfolio highlights

• Autogrid — Building a Resilient and Sustainable Grid with Distributed Energy Resources. Enabling a smarter, cleaner, more distributed electric power grid.
• 45-8 ENERGY — 45-8 ENERGY is exploring eco-friendly helium for uses in many industries.
• Zola Electric — ZOLA Electric designs renewable energy solutions based on the latest in solar, battery and power electronics technology. Adaptable to energy need and income, ZOLA Electric’s solar systems can be bought over time using PAYGo micro-finance leasing and mobile money payments. ZOLA Electric powers more than 180,000 homes and businesses across Tanzania,Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Investors include Tesla, Vulcan Capital, DBL Partners, Helios Investment Partners, EDF, Total and GE Ventures. ZOLA Electric is a recipient of the UN Momentum for Change Award, the Zayed Future Energy Prize and is a member of the Global Cleantech 100.

Portfolio highlights

• Ozow — i-Pay is an instant EFT payment service in South Africa that allows your customer to make secure online payments directly into your bank account in real time.
• Howler — Howler, is the powerful event technology platform designed at the uppermost benchmarks of service and technology to help consumers and event organisers to make moments that matter.
• The Sun Exchange — The Sun Exchange is the peer-to-peer solar leasing marketplace. We leverage financial innovation and the power of the crowd to drive sustainable energy development and make the environmental, social and economic benefits of solar accessible and affordable for all. Through the Sun Exchange online platform, anyone, anywhere in the world, can buyremotely-located solar cells and then lease them to power businesses and organisations in sunny emerging markets. Solar cell owners earn income from the electricity that’s generated, while schools, businesses, clinics and other organisations gain access to affordable clean energy, reducing electricity costs and carbon emissions.

Portfolio highlights

• Tactyc — Tactyc is an easy-to-use portfolio construction, forecasting and management software for venture funds.
• Zoie Health — Zoie is a digital health firm for women that provides family planning, fertility, and maternity care services.
• Money Fellows — MoneyFellows digitizes the ROSCA model, enabling group lending and savings.

Portfolio highlights

• TipLink — TipLink helps send crypto with a link. Someone with crypto can create a account and send that link to anyone over any platform. It’s like buying a gift card, connect the client's crypto wallet of choice and create a account by depositing how much they want to send.
• Afterparty — Your favorite creators are here! Get 1 on 1 unfiltered experiences with creators through Afterparty livestreams or chat 24/7 through AI powered conversations
• Collectibles.com — Collectibles.com is a Web3 community and marketplace for collectors and the worldwide collectibles sector.