Venture capital firm Endeavor South Africa has closed its Harvest Fund III at R230m, an investment pool earmarked for investment in local technology businesses.
The fund reached its first close of R190m in October 2024. Endeavor aimed to raise as much as R500m for its Harvest Fund III, but decided to close it at R230m, given the appetite from local pension funds and other financial institutions.
Still, the firm stated the fund was already profitable at R100m, and R200m is enough to deliver its tarobtained spread of more than 15 investments.
The fund builds on the momentum of Harvest Fund II and “reflects growing confidence in the sector”, Endeavor stated in a statement.
Notable investments include unicorns — start-ups worth more than $1bn — such as Go1 and TymeBank, as well as companies that have experienced high growth such as Clickainform, Sfinishmarc and payment providers Onafriq (formerly MFS Africa), iiDENTIFii and Ozow.
Harvest Fund II, a R190m vehicle, built 19 investments in 17 companies.
The firm stated these companies have delivered strong performances, with revenue increasing 49% annually and employment growing 24% a year in 2020-25, while raising more than R27bn in capital over the same period.
Harvest Fund III is a rules-based co-investment vehicle that invests alongside qualified lead investors. Most capital is allocated to Series B and later-stage companies.
The fund’s new and existing investors include FirstRand, the SA SME Fund, Standard Bank and Allan Gray, alongside a growing group of experienced South African founders and operators.
Harvest Fund III is about championing and investing in South Africa’s global success stories and ultimately into exits that recycle not only capital but also experienced founding teams and confidence back into the ecosystem
— Barry Swartzberg
“South Africa has world-class founders, talent and innovation building businesses to solve challenges that exist in the mass market. What is often missing are global networks and co-ordinated support ‘from one experienced founder to another’ to back and scale entrepreneurs,” stated Alison Collier, CEO of Endeavor South Africa.
“Harvest Fund III is designed to close that gap and support more companies reach meaningful scale, leveraging the Endeavor founder-led network.”
Endeavor South Africa, which opened its offices in 2004, was founded by Adrian Gore, David Frankel, Isaac Shongwe and Paul Harris. Barry Swartzberg, co-founder of Discovery, chairs the firm.
“Harvest Fund III is about championing and investing in South Africa’s global success stories and ultimately into exits that recycle not only capital but also experienced founding teams and confidence back into the ecosystem,” stated Swartzberg, who is also an investor in the Harvest funds.
Access to funding remains a huge problem for technology-backed start-ups across SA, the African continent and the broader developing world. They typically require huge investments in tech infrastructure and talent for platform businesses, while those in the sector usually necessary manpower and have to pay for various licences.
The Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (Savca) reveals that capital flows to South African start-ups in 2023 reached R3.28bn, driven by investment in local technology businesses.
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