Endeavor Catalyst Fund has invested in eight South African businesses in the past 12 months: Aerobotics, Clickatell, Entersekt, Go1, MFS Africa, Ozow, SweepSouth and TymeBank.
Endeavor Catalyst Fund invests in early-stage venture funds in the emerging and underserved markets outside of the US, China and India; and is a co-investment fund of Endeavor Global, which is the largest global community of high-growth entrepreneurs with a presence in 40 markets.
Venture capital is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-ups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth.
This as Endeavor announced the final closing of Endeavor Catalyst Fund IV, a $292 million (R4.6 billion) venture capital (VC) fund through which it plans to continue to invest in the companies led by Endeavor Entrepreneurs globally. The closing of Endeavor Catalyst Fund IV represents Endeavor’s largest fund to date, surpassing the fund’s initial $200m-$250m target.
Alison Collier, Endeavor South Africa’s managing director, said this week the quality of high-growth, scalable businesses in South Africa was gaining traction, and these eight businesses had been selected because of their noteworthy growth and global scaling.
“We have an exciting high-growth start-up community in South Africa, which is ripe for international VC investment. Endeavor is able to leverage its vast global network to broker direct investment as well as mentoring the entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, accelerating global revenue growth and driving job creation in their respective markets,” Collier said.
All eight businesses invested in by Endeavor Catalyst are stand-outs in their categories.
TymeBank, for instance, is South Africa’s fastest-growing digital bank, having acquired five million customers since launching in 2019. It provides an accessible and affordable digital banking option for South Africans looking for value and efficiency. It is also expanding operations internationally.
SweepSouth, on the other hand, is an online marketplace for residential and corporate cleaning services, connecting clients with skilled cleaners in minutes. Having grown exponentially in South Africa, it has ventured beyond local borders and now has a presence in Egypt and Kenya.
Endeavor Global Catalyst managing director Allen Taylor said: “Endeavor’s mission is to support high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging and underserved markets and, through this, drive the local economies' growth.
“With our local presence, with a Endeavor South Africa office, we are able to identify, connect and invest in founder-led businesses with potential to scale globally and through this create jobs en masse and transform local economies,” she said.
“We are very excited at the growth in VC in South Africa, growing at 200 percent last year, and we have more than two local investments in the pipeline for this quarter,” Taylor said.
BUSINESS REPORT