Venture capital

Africa-focused VC fund Outlierz Ventures announces first five investments

Microtraction backs Nigeria’s Sendbox in investor’s first deal of the year [Updated]

In its first deal of the year, early-stage investment platform Microtraction has announced that it has invested in Nigerian tech startup Sendbox. Sendbox provides…

Asset finance firm PEG Africa raises $25m for West Africa solar expansion

Pay-as-you-go solar company PEG Africa has raised a $25-million Series-C round which it plans to use for off-grid solar expansion in Ivory Coast, Ghana…

Nigerian agritech startup Farmcrowdy raises $1m in additional seed funding

Lagos based agritech startup Farmcrowdy has announced that it has raised $1-million in additional seed funding from Cox Enterprises, Techstars and local investor Ajayi…

Kenya’s Bwala Africa now seeking $5m after deal with Uber investor – founder

Nairobi based logistics marketplace Bwala Africa Group is out to raise $5-million this year for “robust growth and scaling”, the startup’s founder and CEO…

SA startup FlexClub closes $1.2m round led by CRE Venture Capital [Updated]

Joburg-based startup FlexClub, which links investors and drivers to cars for ride-hailing services, has landed $1.2-million in investment in a round led by CRE…

SA student accommodation marketplace DigsConnect raises R12m in funding

Cape Town based student accommodation marketplace DigsConnect has raised R12-million in investment from undisclosed investors, according to a report today by tech news site…

Facebook IPO: ‘Suddenly it feels like 1999’

The high valuation of Facebook on secondary share markets might be out of line with its revenues but it does show one thing: A…

Why Angel funding is killing innovation

I’m a fan of Max Levchin and his fellow Paypal alumni because this group has spent the past five years creating many of the…

VC: ‘If you can’t describe your business in a tweet, it’s not a business’

PoweredbyVC is a venture capital fund based in Cape Town, initially established in 2010 by members of emerging market investment group Here Be Dragons…

7 reasons to bootstrap: Angels, VCs or none of the above?

The venture capitalist (VC) community is disdainful of angel investors and their puny funds, but the angels can do deals that VCs cannot because…

Exploding 7 myths about venture capital

The venture capital investment industry is laden with myths and misconceptions, often causing entrepreneurs to lose faith in funding and enthusiasm for their business….

The lack of tech IPOs is holding back job expansion in US, says leading VC

Robert Ackerman, a leading Silicon Valley venture capitalist and founder of Allegis Capital, says that tech IPOs will remain scarce and that this will…

Startups: What VCs look for

Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs often don’t see eye-to-eye, and in South Africa in particular, there seems to be a very real gap in meeting…

New SA crowd-source fund hits R1-million

Crowdfund is the South African tech industry’s latest step toward fostering a culture of angel investment for online start ups in South Africa, and…

Opening speech @ #SiliconCape

Here is the text of the speech I gave at the opening of Silicon Cape in Camps Bay. I’m not alone in saying that…

Sequoia Capital on startups and the economic downturn

This presentation from famous Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm, Sequoia Capital, is a must-see. It explains the effects of the economic downturn on venture…

Internet Solutions to create new VC fund for web innovation?

It looks like Internet Solutions (IS) may be creating some kind of incubator or venture capital fund to encourage local web innovation and startups….

Venture Capital: The lies people tell

Got this from a presentation by David Murray of Cape Venture Partners, a Venture Capital fund which has invested in quite a few successful…

15 Startup Commandments

Found this a good read, especially in the context of creating Amatomu.com. Got it off a Facebook group. The commandments 1. Your idea isn’t…

As Google embraces the stock exchange, many dot.com kids are rubbing their hands with glee at what could signal a return of the good times. Matthew Buckland has been through dot.boom and dot.bomb and spent lots on expensive therapy to forget it all, but here he reminisces.

Dot.boom, dot.bomb, dot.reality

During dot.boom the geeks were cool. Takkies, jeans and T-shirts were to replace ties and sensible shoes in the corridors of power. Boardrooms were…

Why Some Apps Feel Like a Digital Comfort Zone

Female tech founders in South Africa can win up to R1.9 million to scale their innovations

Search.com launches AI chat that pays users and publishers

REdimension Capital closes R250m property tech and sustainability fund

Why the ‘Ego Tax’ is Costing Your Business

South African Women Entrepreneurs Get It Right

Acer Unleashes Beastly New Predator BiFrost and Nitro GPUs with AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series

Philips Evnia Drops Jaw-Dropping QD OLED Monitors: 240Hz, Ambiglow, and All the Good Stuff

Microsoft launches new Surface devices in new AI era

Omoda C5 X review

TDK enhances IMUs for extreme temps

Data centres and defence are reviving diesel