The Hlayisani Capital offers strategic support and capital to high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurs.
The team behind Hlayisani Growth Fund – including Dr Reuel Khoza and Michael Jordaan – is adding value to a number of enterprises in southern Africa with investments to the value of about R200-million already made.
The team is currently engaged in discussions with potential local and international investors keen to participate in their current investment raise.
Focused on the SME ecosystem, Hlayisani Growth Fund offers high-growth private equity investments in South Africa and Africa. The fund specialises in growing SMEs into large, successful enterprises that operate across multiple territories, create jobs and generate export revenue domestically.
Target businesses are those that demonstrate sustainability, growth and investment return while including in their strategy focus on the appropriate environmental, social and governance impact of the business.
“Big business in South Africa spends R100-billion on outsourced services offshore,” says Hlayisani principal Brett Commaille. “This could be redirected into SA if we developed skills. There are many SMEs working to solve this problem – including those in the education and skills development space. This is just one of the investment opportunities for SME-focused funds to support and play a key role in driving GDP growth.”
Hlayisani focuses on investing in SMEs to deliver economic return and socio-economic impact. ICT and manufacturing form the strategic focus of investments. ICT underpins the other investment focus areas as a key enabler and lever, while manufacturing is at the heart of technological change, driving industry growth and employment.
Investments are focused on the following enterprises: agricultural innovation; ICT; manufacturing; education; and medical innovation and services.
Some of the investments made so far include:
* GoMetro (Flx) – designs, sets up and operates scalable and flexible mobility platforms for transport operators around the world.
* Snapplify – an educational content platform and the largest ebook aggregator in Africa.
* Opennetworks – the first Google Premier Partner in Africa, with extensive experience in cloud computing and managed services, helping businesses move on to the cloud.
* Sudonum – helps businesses around the world improve their ROI, understand the effectiveness of their marketing, and deliver better customer experience through call tracking and analytics.
* Ikeja – A wireless network provider that uses bespoke solutions to provide internet connectivity to locations that are densely populated but underserved, such as the informal settlements of South Africa.
* Lean Enterprise Accelerator Programmes (LEAP) – manages enterprise and supplier development for large businesses, providing business support, access to markets and shared resources for entrepreneurs.
Additional deals are in the pipeline and will be announced soon.
Looking forward, group chairman Dr Reuel Khoza says: “The Hlayisani investment team has a strong record in private equity and venture finance with unique access to proprietary deal flow. We are uniquely experienced and placed to seize high-growth opportunities that are positioned for outstanding investment returns while delivering socially responsible and measurable impact.”
Michael Jordaan, investment committee chairman, adds: “Collectively, the team has extensive experience and expertise as investors and operators. This, we believe will help to unlock value for our entrepreneurs and our investors.”
Other members of the team include Nkateko Khoza, director and investment principal; Dr Eugene van Rensburg, director and investment principal; Kevin Harris, investment committee member; and Mathew Palin, portfolio manager and investment committee member.