Pardon Makumbe, co-founder and managing partner of CRE Venture Capital When you look at raising capital in Africa, what can we see in the current landscape?
Our continent is a big place made up of regional ecosystems, each with its own unique personality and dynamism. The regions we know the best are South of the Sahara – Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa.
In Southern Africa, South Africa is the obvious juggernaut. The story of South Africa’s early-stage technology entrepreneurship and venture capital ecosystem can be traced back to Mark Shuttleworth building Thawte and selling it to Verisign for $575m in 1999, at the age of 26. Following that staggering success, Shuttleworth established HBD Venture Capital (Here Be Dragons). You can connect several dots to that genesis and ultimately trace an arc to where we are today.
#StartupFunding101: Zachariah George talks early-stage funding in SA
Covid-19
As part of our #StartupFunding1010 series, Zachariah George, co-founder and chief investment officer of Startupbootcamp AfriTech and Endeavor mentor, walks us through the stages of early-stage funding and how to approach it in South Africa.
Could you take us through the funding stages of starting a business? (levels of seed funding, early stage funding, etc.)
Typical stages of funding in the VC industry:
Pre-Seed – typically at MVP but pre-revenue
Seed Stage – some proof of concepts (“PoCs”) and/or pilots in place, could be pre-revenue still or barely post revenue
Growth Stage – Series A and B
#StartupFunding101: Capital funding and the fund raising basics bizcommunity.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bizcommunity.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.