Launch Africa Ventures appointed investment advisor to Botswana Tech Fund
Venture fund targets pre-seed and growth-stage tech businesses across Southern Africa.
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Venture capital firm Launch Africa Ventures has been appointed as the investment advisor for phase one of the Botswana Tech Fund (BTF), a multi-stage £50 million venture fund focused on digitising businesses across Southern Africa. The appointment forms part of Launch Africa Ventures’ managed accounts strategy, advising on third-party investment mandates.
Combining an accelerator-led pre-seed strategy with a primary and secondary growth programme, BTF targets the digitisation of the region’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) economy. The fund targets £50 million in total commitments. Phase one will deploy up to £5 million: £1 million across a pre-seed cohort, and two to four growth-stage investments in primary and secondary opportunities.
BTF is anchored by Pula Investments, the Guernsey-based family office of Stephen Lansdown CBE, co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown. The fund’s leadership team includes managing partner Martin Davis, former chief executive officer of FTSE 250-listed Molten Ventures, where he grew the portfolio to £2 billion in net asset value, and general partner Florence Bavanandan, head of platform and operations at Launch Africa Ventures.
BTF operates a dual strategy designed to meet founders at their stage and grow with them. The accelerator programme backs pre-seed companies based in Southern Africa with £25,000-£100,000 in capital per cohort company, alongside structured support, market access, and hands-on operational guidance.
The growth strategy targets revenue-generating companies based in, or expanding to, Southern Africa from Seed through Series C. It deploys £500,000-£2 million per investment in both primary and secondary opportunities.
“The founders building in Southern Africa’s frontier markets are operating in one of the most underleveraged digitisation opportunities on the continent,” said Zachariah George, co-founder and managing partner of Launch Africa Ventures. “They have been doing it largely without institutional backing, this is a fantastic opportunity for founders at every stage of their journey and will be truly catalytic for the ecosystem.”
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