Final close for Knife Capital's $50m African Series B expansion fund
Knife Capital reached final close for its $50 million African Series B expansion fund, Knife Fund III. The fund supports the expansion of African innovation driven companies to fill a critical follow-on funding gap, as lead investor and through co-investment with other credible funders across the continent. The focus is on high-growth scalable South African B2B technology companies that have impact potential and show strong returns through exit optionality. The fund will also back entrepreneurs in other African countries who fit this investment profile in collaboration with experienced local partners.
Despite their immense potential, promising African startups that have managed to grow beyond the Series A funding stage often struggle to find the capital they need to scale further and take their innovations to a global level.
A broad range of investors committed to Knife Fund III, including the team itself, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC), the SA SME Fund as well as its new Venture Capital Fund of Funds (a pioneering collaboration between government and business that attracted capital from investors like The Department of Science and Innovation, USAID, The Consolidated Retirement Fund for Local Government and Rand Mutual Assurance), Standard Bank, AfricaGrow (a German Fund of Funds backed by DEG, KfW and AllianzGI), Skybound Capital, Fireball Capital and the Draper-Gain family office in partnership with Rand Merchant Bank.
“We are delighted to bring together such a credible investor base with a reason to care about the growth of venture capital investments in Africa,” says Keet van Zyl who co-founded Knife Capital in 2010 with Eben van Heerden.
“Most of our investors are co-investment partners who share deal flow openly and can augment the investments with alternative funding instruments and follow-on funding for enhanced growth. Raising a venture capital fund in Africa is a long and challenging journey, but we could not have scripted the outcome any better,” he added.
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