Kalon Venture Partners, a South African VC firm that invests in digital disruptive technologies, plans to establish a US$50 million fund, enabling it to make investments for the first time outside of South Africa.
Its most recent fund, which had a value of ZAR250 million (about $17.5 million at the time), was closed in 2021. It started off as a Section 12J firm, which encouraged South African taxpayers to invest in local businesses in exchange for a tax break of up to 100%. Once that was eliminated in 2021, Kalon is now looking for institutional investors for its new, $50 million African-focused fund.
Since its founding in 2016, Kalon Venture Partners has backed 11 South African technology companies, including marketing startup Mobiz, payments company Ozow, prop-tech company Flow, and cybersecurity startup Sendmarc. The firm invests in post-revenue start-ups with high growth and high-impact potential.
The CEO of Kalon Venture Partners, Clive Butkow, stated in the most recent installment of the “The month in VC” series on the Disrupt Podcast, which was created in collaboration with Katapult Africa, Kalon Venture Partners, and Hlayisani Capital.
“You can’t just lift something out of the sky and drop it in Nigeria, Kenya, or Ghana. You can see how miserable failures in those markets our banks, telcos, and stores are. You must seek a new product-market fit. There are variations: cultural variations, variations in consumer purchasing patterns, variations in the ideal client profile, Butkow continued.
Operating throughout Africa rather than only in South Africa would give Kalon both opportunities and challenges.
Read more on Tech Gist Africa:
Guardrisk, a South African insurance company, has $2.8 million
Envisionit Deep AI, a South African e-health startup, secures $1.65 million in funding
Planet42, a South African car subscription company, raises $100M in debt and equity