Top 15 Internet Angel Investors in South Africa in October 2023

Vinny Lingham is Co-Founder & CEO at Civic. He was the founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card app that allows customers to buy, store, send and redeem gift cards conveniently from their mobile device. He is also the founder of Yola.com, a web development and hosting company that enables users without prior programming knowledge to developwebsites. Vinny is the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) and was also a finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) and ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). He also previously founded Clicks2Customers, which also won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006. He has previously served on marketing advisory boards for Nasdaq listed Valueclick and Yahoo, was also selected as an Endeavor “High Impact Entrepreneur” in 2006. Vinny studied a B.Com (Information Systems) at the University of Cape Town.

Investment focus

Blockchain, Internet, Cryptocurrency
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
United States, South Africa, United Kingdom

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.

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Yossi Hasson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Metaversal and a Venture Partner at 2048 Ventures. He is also a Non-Executive Director of WeThinkCode_. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of Techstars. He attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Pretoria/Universiteit van Pretoria.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Blockchain, Payments
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
South Africa, United States, Ghana

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.

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Justin is a 31-year old entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist from Cape Town, South Africa. He is founder, MD, board member, advisor, or investor to a wide variety of companies in the global technology sector.Having grown up on a farm, he decided not to complete high-school and instead made the move to the city of Cape Town, topursue his dreams of being an Internet entrepreneur.Despite years of struggles and false starts in the wake of the dotcom crash in 2001, he ultimately went on to successfully launch and grow a pan-African Internet based software company from a garage in the suburbs of Cape Town.Have founded his first startup attempt at the age of 18, Justin has been involved in tech startups and entrepreneurial endeavours ever since.He is today the co-founder and MD of 4Di Group, a diversified investment management group and family office, and co-founding General Partner of early-stage technology venture capital firm 4Di Capital, as well as an active angel investor.As co-founder and Steering Committee Chairman of the Silicon Cape Initiative in 2009, designed to highlight and foster South Africa's nascent emerging tech startup ecosystem, Justin fully believes in South Africa’s potential as a global technology innovation hub.In 2011, he was listed by the Mail & Guardian for the 'Top 200 Young South Africans', and in 2013, listed by Forbes for '30 Under 30: Africa's Best Young Entrepreneurs'.

Investment focus

FinTech, Financial Services, Security
Seed, Angel, Series A
South Africa

Portfolio highlights

FitKey — FitKey is about helping you find and manage the fitness life that makes you happy, through discovering new classes, studios, and fitness activities. With easy online and mobile booking, FitKey keeps your routine interesting.
TaxTim — Originally funded by Google in 2011, TaxTim is Africa's answer to Making Tax Easy. Answer simple questions one-by-one, in a friendly automated chat, and your tax return is done in minutes. TaxTim has 40% market share of the tax base in South Africa (~4.5m), and has deployed localised versions in Namibia and Nigeria as JVs with PwC previously.TaxTim is integrated with the local revenue service (SARS) for instant electronic tax submissions, and partners with some of SA's largest consumer brands - Airbnb, Momentum, Sanlam, Old Mutual, FNB eBucks - to provide tax services for free or at discount. TaxTim has several business models including B2C, B2B and B2B2C. TaxTim is a compelling and popular consumer brand, with a fully-developed, profitable broker/financial product leads ecosystem.
Ekaya.com — Ekaya exists to make renting simpler, safer and more connected - for everyone.

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Sebastian Stoddart after working for 10 years as a product design consultant for top design consultancies in the US, Netherlands and UK, working for clients such as Samsung, Philips, Smith & Nephew, Compaq and Hewlett Packard, Sebastian formed his own company, albooto.com, to bring innovative products to market.

Investment focus

Rental, Internet, Analytics
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
United Kingdom, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

8bit — 8Bit is localised content discovery and analytics platform dedicated to the distribution of high-quality content across their network of indie publishers.
Ekaya.com — Ekaya exists to make renting simpler, safer and more connected - for everyone.
Boost Technology — Enabling informal small businesses to thrive in Africa's emerging digital economy

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The 'Afropreneur' (entrepreneur with an African focus), as he self-describes, Idris Ayodeji Bello is a Partner at LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited and co-founder of The Wennovation Hub, an innovation platform based in Nigeria, that has successfully accelerated the launch of several technology start-ups in social impact sectors. He isalso a Founding Partner at Loftyinc Capital Management, owners of the Afropreneurs Fund (I&II)The 'Afropreneur' (entrepreneur with an African focus), as he self-describes, Idris Bello is a Partner at LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited and co-founder of The Wennovation Hub, an innovation platform based in Nigeria, that has successfully accelerated the launch of several technology start-ups in social impact sectors. He is also a Founding Partner at Loftyinc Capital Management, owners of the Afropreneurs Fund (I&II)A first class honors graduate of Computer Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, he has an M.Sc in Computer Science & Data Mining from the University of Houston; an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Strategy from Rice University in Houston and an M.Sc in Global Health Science from the University of Oxford, where he was a 2011 recipient of The Lord Weidenfeld Scholarship for demonstrating remarkable potential as a future leader from an emerging economy.Idris spent the greater part of a decade working at Chevron Corporation and ExxonMobil USA, where he led several large upstream technology projects across the USA and Sub-Saharan Africa. Idris has also worked with the Clinton Foundation Health Access Initiative where he played a major role in the deployment and evaluation of Swaziland’s first mobile health patient appointment reminder system as part of the country’s National AIDS Program. Listed among CNN’s Top Ten African Technology Voices, he is a Singularity University Impact Fellow, Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance Associate, Clinton Global Initiative University Fellow, MIT Global Start-up Fellow, SAP Ashoka Global Changemakers Award Winner, Dell Technology Award Winner, StartingBloc Innovation Fellow and a Nigeria Leadership Initiative Future Leader.As a leader, Idris has mentored and catalyzed scores of contributors across the growing African landscape and is an angel investor and advisor to several African startups including Andela, Flutterwave, RelianceHMO, among others. He continues to devote his efforts to the development of innovation-driven, technology-enabled social enterprises that empower the underserved and develop transformative ideas to change lives on the African continent.He spends most of his time between Lagos, Cairo, or airport lounges.

Investment focus

FinTech, Software, Financial Services
Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed
Nigeria, United States, Egypt

Portfolio highlights

Jem — We give employers the ability to send company-wide communications, deliver payslips, manage leave & give employees access to their earnings, via WhatsApp.
SimpliFi — SimpliFi is on a mission to democratize payments by building the leading Cards as a Service (CaaS) platform for MENA and Pakistan.
ORDA — Process orders, accept payments, connect to logistic providers, engage with your customers + more. We equip you with everything you need to grow your business.

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Polo Leteka is the Founder and Chairman of IDF Capital SA. She previously worked at Standard Bank of South Africa. Polo Leteka attended the University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika.

Investment focus

Retail, Internet, Logistics
Seed, Series B
South Africa

Portfolio highlights

SweepSouth — Book a home cleaning online from your mobile, tablet or computer. SweepSouth connects you with a cleaner in minutes. Cleaners are experienced, reliable, efficient and insured.

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Maijid Moujaled is a co-founder and president at Chipper Cash.

Investment focus

Gaming, Mobile, FinTech
Seed, Series A
Nigeria, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

PayHippo — PayHippo is making it easier to finance small and medium sized businesses in Africa. There is a need for financing of $158 bn for SMEs in Nigeria alone. To start, PayHippo helps SMEs access and spend lender capital effectively. During their first full operational year in 2020, the PayHippo co--founders leveraged their domain expertise and foundingexperience to beat their 2020 goal by 50%.
Carry1st — Carry1st develops and publishes enriching mobile games and content apps for African consumers.

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Will Herman is an active angel investor, corporate director, author, and startup mentor. He was previously a serial entrepreneur, having started five companies, taking two of them public. Will is an adviser at the hardware incubator, Bolt, and a mentor at TechStars. He lives and works mostly in the Boston area.

Investment focus

Software, Mobile, Enterprise Software
Seed, Series A, Convertible Note
United States, South Africa, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

VueBox — VueBox places interactive content in rideshare vehicles
Pristēm — The laundry & dry cleaning services industry has seen no hardware innovation in a long time resulting in 24 hr+ turnarounds, insanely expensive prices, and a complete lack of reliability. Pristēm has built a magical new clothing care experience that's 150x faster, 10x cheaper, and hassle free. Our smart hardware and consumable cleansyour outfit exactly when you need it, not 24 hours later.Our nationwide network of smart hardware products can be accessed through your mobile phone and a monthly subscription. Pristēm provides the best customer experience that's a faster, greener, and more enjoyable alternative to the laundry and dry cleaning services available today.
Looking Glass Factory — Introducing Looking Glass Portrait, your first personal holographic display. Designed for people, real and imagined. Available for pre-order today.

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Llew is the Managing Partner of Newtown Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm that actively invests in emerging, disruptive technology startup businesses. Founded and run by internationally successful entrepreneurs, Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen, Newtown Partners has an entrepreneurial focus that goes beyond investment. The team operatesout of offices in Cape Town, South Africa and Sunnyvale, California (Silicon Valley).Llew is a go-to-market strategist with almost two decades of senior management experience in cryptoassets (since 2012), digital product management and digital marketing.He co-founded Clicks2customers (rebranded to www.nmpidigital.com) with Vinny Lingham, now a global digital marketing agency with annual billings in excess of $100 million and Synthasite (rebranded to www.yola.com).Llew is also the former Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, the original, the oldest and the largest Bitcoin advocacy organization globally, headquartered in San Francisco, U.S.Llew has a Masters degree in the Management of Technology & Innovation and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Investment focus

Logistics, Health Care, Mobile Apps
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

Chefaa — Chefaa is a GPS-enabled pharmacy benefits platform connecting patients & pharmacies nation-wide to help patients manage all their pharmacy needs. Chefaa uses big data, data ming & machine learning
SweepSouth — Book a home cleaning online from your mobile, tablet or computer. SweepSouth connects you with a cleaner in minutes. Cleaners are experienced, reliable, efficient and insured.
Clockwork Logistics Systems — Intelligent Delivery Automation for the Global Supply Chain - Clockwork digitizes processes and extend existing systems into the people who do work to deliver goods across the global supply chain through a software only digital platform.

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Nas, byname of Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, also called Nasty Nas, (born September 14, 1973, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.), American rapper and songwriter who became a dominant voice in 1990s East Coast hip-hop. Nas built a reputation as an expressive chronicler of inner-city street life.Nasir Jones, the son of a jazz musician, grew up in public housingin Queens, New York. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and searched for a creative outlet, finally settling on hip-hop. His breakthrough came in 1992, when his song “Half Time” (credited to Nasty Nas) appeared on the sound track to the film Zebrahead. Columbia Records soon signed him to a contract. His debut recording as Nas, Illmatic (1994), drew widespread acclaim for its poetic narration of hard-edged inner-city life.The more pop-oriented approach of It Was Written (1996) helped that album reach an even wider audience than its predecessor but ignited a recurring tension in Nas’s career between the appetite of the pop audience and the demands of hip-hop purists. He maintained his commercial appeal with I Am... (1999), although by that time he had also become embroiled in a public feud with fellow rapper Jay-Z over which of the two was the preeminent voice in East Coast hip-hop. The schism inspired Stillmatic (2001), which many fans considered a return to form. The two rappers publicly settled their differences in 2005, and shortly thereafter Nas signed with Def Jam, of which Jay-Z was president at the time.Nas’s penchant for provocation marked Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and an untitled follow-up (2008), while Life Is Good (2012) struck an introspective tone. He also notably collaborated with reggae musician Damian Marley (the youngest son of Bob Marley) on the album Distant Relatives (2010).Nas also made occasional film appearances, notably in Belly (1998), a crime drama in which he starred opposite rapper DMX, and Black Nativity (2013), an adaptation of Langston Hughes’s gospel play.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Internet, Software
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, Canada, Brazil

Portfolio highlights

Magic Spoon — Magic Spoon cereal is high-protein, low-sugar, keto-friendly, and gluten-free. Available in Cocoa, Frosted, Fruity, Blueberry, Peanut Butter, and Cinnamon.
Everyrealm — Leaders in metaverse innovation and development.
Altered State Machine — Altered State Machine, aims to be a platform and protocol which any developer can build on it; can create, own, and compete with AI-based agents (bots) and upgrade and train their AI, buy, and sell them as NFTs. This will bring an evolution for NFTS.

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Michael is the San Diego based Senior VP Business Development for Cognician, a self coaching and behavior change platform based in San Francisco. He is also a shareholder and director. Michael also has array of investments in and advisory roles with a number of other start ups, including Gyft, Yola, ChessCube and Skyrove.

Investment focus

Apps, Publishing, Software
Angel, Seed, Funding Round
United States, South Africa

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.

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Ham Serunjogi is a co-founder and CEO at Chipper Cash.

Investment focus

Finance, Financial Services, Mobile Apps
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
Nigeria, United States, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

Sudo — Sudo is an open API platform that enables businesses to embed powerful financial features into their products. Build in minutes, launch in days.
CreditChek — Easily assess & verify credit worthiness in Africa.
Carry1st — Carry1st develops and publishes enriching mobile games and content apps for African consumers.

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Guilherme Steinbruch - Partner @ Global Founders Capital

Investment focus

Music, Events, Rental
Seed, Angel, Series A
Ireland, South Africa, United States

Portfolio highlights

Flipdish — Flipdish will be the go-to brand for online ordering for on-demand food businesses. Flipdish make branded ordering apps and websites for quick service delivery and takeout restaurants. Take control by using the Flipdish online ordering platform and power your online ordering business with your own branded website and app.
WeDemand — WeDemand is a digital platform that powers fan driven live events across the world.The platform empowers fans to Demand a Show in their cityIt provides artists with a direct communication channel to fans and uses data to predict attendance and identify the best tour routesOnce the event dates are set, WeDemand helps promoters market andsell tickets directly to fans that demanded the event
Ekaya.com — Ekaya exists to make renting simpler, safer and more connected - for everyone.

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Tom is currently a commercial executive at Clicks2customers.com, a global Search Engine Marketing company. His background is in (bio-) engineering but he has been involved in online companies for the past 10 years. Besides working at Clicks2customers, Tom is a part time lecturer at TSIBA (http://www.tsiba.org.za/) a South AfricanNGO providing tertiary education to economically disadvantaged children. He is also an angel investor in a number is technology startups and is an active member of the Silicon Cape initiative (www.siliconcape.com)

Investment focus

Apps, Events, Printing
Angel
South Africa

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.

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