Major South African VCs to officially launch web-based due diligence tool

Major South African venture capitalists from Knife Capital are gearing up to launch a startup called YueDiligence, which aims to assist entrepreneurs and investors with due diligence.

By relying on a web-based questionnaire, GAP analysis and a range of other tools, YueDiligence intends to help stakeholders make better early-stage investment decisions.

The YueDiligence team is made up of Keet van Zyl, Andrea Bohmert and Eben Van Heerden from the renowned VC firm, Knife Capital. Not only did the firm see through the exit of iKubu to Garmin early this year, it also reported a 61% increase in revenue for the companies participating in its Grindstone accelerator programme last year.

“Through the YueDiligence platform we plan to leave a positive mark on the future of the financial services industry by channelling more investment into early-stage ventures,” Van Zyl told Ventureburn. “The lack of access to funding is one of the top constraints inhibiting the growth of early-stage ventures in Africa (and all over the world) but we believe that the lack of access to information may be the real reason why early-stage deals fail.”

Read more: Here are Africa’s 5 Innotribe Startup Challenge finalists

Van Zyl added that because Africa’s startup ecosystems were still in development phase, investors and entrepreneurs often lacked experience in the early-stage deal-making process. YueDiligence is a tool that wants to make this more efficient.

“Entrepreneurs still see due diligence as an intimidating and daunting exercise,” Van Zyl said. “YueDiligence will reduce this uncertainty by coaching entrepreneurs through the process and helping them prepare for due diligence by proactively closing growth gaps.”

The company has been operating in beta this year and in May was chosen as one of Africa’s three Innotribe Startup Challenge early-stage finalists. The team will be competing at the Grand Finale, taking place at Sibos in Singapore on 14 October 2015, the world’s premier financial services event.

According to the invitation sent to Ventureburn recently, YueDiligence will officially launch at the end of September.