In what may be a first for South Africa, the country is set to get its first angel fund focused entirely on women-owned businesses.
Alexandra Fraser, one of the organisation’s founding members, confirmed that Johannesburg-based Dazzle Angels will start operating later this year.
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The organisation’s founding team is comprised of an all-women team that includes Fraser, who is the founder of Fraser Consulting, JAG Method co-founder Adi Zuk, JAG Group COO Lee Zuk, and Charlotte Luzuka.
In a brief phone call earlier today Fraser told Ventureburn that the fund — which is yet to open applications for investment — is still in the “early stages” of setting up.
She explained that Dazzle Angels is currently in the process of signing up angel investors and that the fund will officially launch operations in November, likely during Global Entrepreneurship Week which takes place in the same month.
Dazzle Angels aims to generate inclusive funding for early-stage women led and women-empowering businesses
On its website, Dazzle Angels states that its goal is to “solve the radical gender inequality in early-stage investment management and deployment”. The fund will invest in South African businesses that are either founded or co-founded by at least one woman.
Good things happening across the continent….many congrats to @anfraser and partners with the launch of Dazzle Angels, the first female focused angels fund in South Africa #angelinvesting https://t.co/XoYGREHx5i pic.twitter.com/ifxQusq62C
— ABAN Angels (@ABANAngels) August 13, 2018
In an email today (15 August) Africa Business Angel Network and South African Business Angel Network co-founder Chris Campbell commented that Dazzle Angles launch is a “fantastic development” and that he hoped to see more angel groups develop in the country over the next couple of years.
He singled out Rising Tide Europe — a group of 90 business women from 25 countries who together have pooled €1-million for investment in six to 10 early-stage European companies.
The group, he said, has been an “excellent global example” of how seasoned angels share their investor acumen, and that a more local version, Rising Tide Africa is set to follow suit. He did not say when the latter would be launched.
Read more: Venture capitalist questions why so few women involved in angel investing in SA
Featured image: ABAN Angels via Twitter
