# Top 5 Retail VC (Venture Capital) Funds in South Africa in May 2026

## Icon Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series C, Series B, Series D
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Enterprise Software

The road to success is long. Re-defining an industry requires passion, perseverance, and true grit. At Icon Ventures, we help entrepreneurs with true grit navigate the journey to become icons of tomorrow.

## CRE Venture Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Financial Services, FinTech, Software

Founded in 2015, CRE Venture Capital invests in early stage tech companies that are levered to Africa. CRE is headquartered in the New York metro area, with a regional office in Lagos, Nigeria.

## Savannah Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Nairobi, Nairobi Area, Kenya
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: E-Commerce, FinTech, Information Technology

Savannah Fund is a seed capital fund specializing in US$25,000-US$500,000 investments in early stage high growth technology (web and mobile) startups in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially focused on East Africa, the fund aims to bridge the early stage/angel and venture capital investment gap that currently exists in Africa. The Fund expects toachieve this objective by combining capital with mentor networks both in the region and from Silicon Valley via an accelerator program and a follow-on independent seed fund.The fund is managed by an experienced and technology savvy team that have founded companies or are actively involved in angel investing or having run successful accelerator programs in past but also understand the unique Subsaharan African environment. They are backed and supported by both local, regional and international networks of angels,venture capitalists whose expertise we can draw on to help startups succeed and scale to fully fledged regional or global companies.They believe in the potential for Africa to become a global technology innovator by creating sustainable for profit companies that create jobs and make an impact.

## Vumela Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Hyde Park, Newtownabbey, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Debt Financing
- Focus: Education, Software, Primary Education

Vumela was established in 2009 by FNB Business Banking and Edge Growth. The objective was to create an innovative model for the development of a sustainable and a financially and operationally independent investment business which invests in high growth small, medium and micro size enterprises with good economic and impact returns.Vumela wascapitalised in 2010. Within the first four years, we’d invested R90 million into eight high growth SMEs, and created a total of 400 jobs. They launched their second fund in 2015, after a further investment of R100 million from FirstRand and R127 million from the Jobs Fund. Within the first year of launching this second fund, we’ve committed R43 million to five investments that are expected to create over 1800 new jobs.The first fund of its kind in South Africa, Vumela’s main goals are to invest in and develop entrepreneurial companies in order to help alleviate poverty in South Africa by creating jobs, and to generate a return for its beneficiaries: the Shalamuka Foundation and the FirstRand Group.

## Newtown Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Cape Town, NA - South Africa, South Africa
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Logistics, Health Care, Information Technology

Newtown Partners is a venture capital firm that actively invests in emerging, disruptive technology startups.

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