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A slice of the action

22 March 2012

By: Marc Hasenfuss of the Financial Mail
Source: www.fm.co.za

Keet van Zyl. Picture: Hetty Zantman

Knife Capital will pitch at growth equity opportunities in the broader technology space.

The fund managers behind SA internet billionaire Mark Shuttleworth’s successful Here Be Dragons (HBD) Fund2 and the vibrant venture capital initiative AngelHub will be aiming for well-heeled third-party investors with the launch of Knife Capital.

While executive directors Eben van Heerden and Keet van Zyl, formerly working under the guise of Powered by VC, have their roots in venture capital, Knife Capital will pitch at growth equity opportunities in the broader technology space.

But that does not entirely rule out grabbing early-stage opportunities. Knife Capital has managed to coax on board highly regarded venture capitalists Andrea Bohmert (ex-Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa) and Brett Commaille (ex- Remgro’s InVenfin).

Van Zyl says: “I reckon it’s the best team in the market that we could muster. It’s basically Mark Shuttleworth’s team, but broadened with the skills of Andrea and Brett.”

Official performance figures on the HBD Fund2 are not open for public scrutiny, but it’s obvious substantial profits were taken on exiting investments in financial services technology company Fundamo (sold to Visa) and C- Sense (sold to General Electric) and the exit of the next major investment is also on the cards.

Van Zyl notes the proceeds from the well documented HBD Fund2 exits already exceed the full fund value and that the fund is on track to achieve an impressive overall internal rate of return (IRR).

He believes Knife Capital, which will be looking to raise around $50m (or R400m) before year-end, can replicate the success of HBD Fund2. “We are looking to generate IRRs of 30% over the fund life, which will be five to seven years.”

Van Zyl says Knife Capital is flexible about raising funds. “We may look at raising a smaller tranche of funding — maybe R100m- R150m — which will allow us to close off a fund and build a track record before testing the investment market again.”

The “entry ticket” will cost between R20m and R30m, which means that pension funds and institutions, as well as “super angel” funders offshore, will be the initial targets.

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Posted in Interviews, Knife Capital, News, Venture Capital

PoweredbyVC is rebranding to Knife Capital

22 March 2012

PoweredbyVC is rebranding to Knife Capital and currently in the process of raising a Growth Equity Fund of between R100m and R150m. The fund has an exit-centric focus on technology-enabled African ventures with proven traction. Investment size will range between R10m and R30m per first round investment, and the minimum Limited Partner commitment is R20m. For more information click here.

Posted in Knife Capital, News

Angel funding - High risk, high returns - Wings for new ventures

21 July 2011

By: Lise Pretorius
Source: Financial Mail

PHOTO by Hetty Zantman | Keet van Zyl

Angel investors are typically high net worth individuals (worth above R5m) who invest their own money in start-ups as part of a balanced investment portfolio.

Entrepreneurship is a key ingredient in economic growth, and funding is a key ingredient in entrepreneurship, but unfortunately there’s a funding gap for early stage start-ups in SA.

Business angels could be the solution.

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Posted in AngelHub, Interviews, News, Venture Capital

Six questions that rejected Venture Capital seekers could not answer

20 June 2011

By Keet Van Zyl for memeburn

Raising funding for an early-stage venture is always difficult. There is no bottled recipe for success, but even if you have a great concept that is scalable combined with a passionate team that can execute the growth strategy, you still need to communicate this in a multifaceted investor’s pitch.

Most entrepreneurs can give a fair account of the top line business strategic growth path, dive into the complexities of the product or service offering, put together a good industry analysis, name a handful of possible clients and present enticing year three to five financial projections, but this will not necessarily get you to the due diligence phase.

Unless all of this is based on solid research, the application for venture capital (VC) funding will most likely get rejected. In my experience as funder of early-stage businesses, the following seemingly easy questions are stumbling blocks that just about never get answered satisfactorily.

1. “Describe your business in simple terms”

Yes, I know that you sent me a detailed business plan with five attachments and your PowerPoint presentation had awesome graphics, but please just tell me what you do — or intend to do — in one sentence without all the adjectives and jargon. What most entrepreneurs don’t realise is that this is not only about the VC understanding the business model, but also an assessment on whether the concept can be communicated clearly to prospective customers.

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Posted in News, Venture Capital

Visa Acquires Fundamo, Signs New Agreement With Monitise

9 June 2011

Source: http://money.msn.com
Posted: 9 June 2011
Copyright 2011 Business Wire

Visa Inc. V, a global leader in payments, today announced that it is acquiring Fundamo, a leading platform provider of mobile financial services for mobile network operators and financial institutions in developing economies. It also announced a new, long-term commercial agreement with Monitise plc (LSE:MONI.L), a leading provider of mobile money solutions for financial institutions in more developed geographies.

The investments will accelerate the execution of Visa’s global strategy announced last month to provide the next generation of payments solutions, enabling consumers to transact wherever and whenever they choose, using a card, a computer or a mobile device with Visa’s reliability, security and global acceptance. The combination of acquiring Fundamo and expanding the relationship with Monitise will enable Visa to deliver best-in-class mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.

Fundamo Acquisition

While mobile financial services in developing markets are growing and have become a core service offered by many mobile operators and financial institutions, these services are often limited in scalability and reach and are not interoperable with other regional payment services or global payments networks.

Fundamo’s platform enables the delivery of mobile financial services to unbanked and under-banked consumers around the world—including person-to-person payment, airtime top-up, bill payment and branchless banking services.

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