June 2022 Newsletter

Dear Friends of Endeavor,

It is hard to believe that we are almost into the second half of 2022. At Endeavor South Africa, we’re happy to share the positive news coming from our high-growth entrepreneurship network and continue to feel inspired by the stories we get to tell.

Businesses in the Endeavor network are experiencing double-digit revenue and job growth as they hire to meet demand. What we are also witnessing is a steady flow of interest and capital investment, both locally and internationally.

In this new report from Endeavor Nigeria, it is revealed that Africa’s digital economy and tech ecosystem is set to experience a period of exponential growth. The report is dubbed “The Inflection Point: Africa’s Digital Economy is Poised to Take Off”. Grab your coffee, get comfortable and take a deep dive into this 120 page report, you won’t regret it.

Endeavor’s Global Catalyst and Local Harvest Funds also continue to bring good news and increased funding with the announcement of both the Fund’s closes this quarter. This means more capital flowing directly into Endeavor’s entrepreneurial network!

Endeavor’s Harvest fund II closes in April 2022 after having raised at R190m, double its initial target

• The Fund has Invested in 11 companies in the last year, making it the most active SA venture capital fund;
• The growing portfolio includes investments into: Pargo, Flow, Sendmarc, Go1, MFS Africa, Ozow, Clickatell, Synatic, Mobiz, Flexclub and another soon to be announced;
• The LP’s include Endeavor entrepreneurs, Endeavor Board members, Endeavor mentors and a number of institutional LP’s such as: SA SME Fund, Fireball Capital, Norsad Capital, Allan Gray Philanthropy, Sphere and Untapped.

Endeavor’s Global Catalyst Fund IV closes in May 2022, raising $280m in 6 months

• Endeavor Catalyst is one of the best performing Funds globally, alongside Sequoia and Accel, investing in emerging venture capital markets (outside of China, India & US) at the early stage.
• Fund IV counts 33% of their LPs as Endeavor entrepreneurs, proving out the multiplier effect of its pay-it-forward mentality.
• Latest investments include a growing number from South Africa, including Entersekt, Aerobotics, Clickatell, Ozow, MFS Africa, Go1 and 2 more soon to be announced.

Our South Africa Endeavor entrepreneurs continue to put Africa on the global VC map!

• Go1, B2B learning platform, co-founded by Melvyn Lubega & Andrew Barnes raises $100m in June 2022 from leading global VC’s at a $2bn valuation, following their $200m raise in June 2021 at a $1bn valuation.
• MFS Africa, Africa’s leading digital payments network, announces the $100m extension to their Series C raise increasing the round to $200m and the $34m acquisition of US based Global Technology Partners, Africa’s #1 pre-paid card processor.
• The inaugural list of the Top 100 Global Tech Changemakers has been published and we were proud to see the names of many South African and African Endeavor entrepreneurs on this list.
• SPARK Schools & The Training Room Online ranked by Financial Times as Africa’s Top 10 fastest growing Education company in 2022, with Sparks Schools taking first position.
• Endeavor entrepreneurs Dare Okoudjou, MFS Africa CEO, and Lars Veul, Pargo CEO, are leaders in the fintech and e-commerce verticals respectively and their expansion into Africa was covered in Tech Financials News.
• Endeavor entrepreneur and Wyzetalk CEO, Gys Kappers, was featured in Harvard Business Review.

We’ve doubled the Endeavor Portfolio to 100 businesses (up from 50 teams in 2020) by partnering with 5 leading South African organisations

By partnering with SA SME Fund, JSE, FNB, Allan Gray Orbis, UK-SA Tech Hub & FMO, Endeavor has increased the number of high-growth tech-enabled entrepreneurs it supports — thus driving increased revenue growth, job creation and capital raised in the economy.

Furthermore, it is fantastic to see such strong performance in 2021:

• Local Scale Up: SA SME Fund: 18x companies with annual revenue of R5m to R100m
• +105% revenue growth; +45% job growth employing 1420 people; R0.9bn capital raised
• FNB Business Elevator: 10x black SA founded companies with annual revenue of R2m to R50m
• +270% revenue growth; +55% job growth; R45m capital raised
• JSE Enterprise Accelerator: 10x high-growth teams with annual revenue of R20m to R300m
• +55% revenue growth delivering revenue of R2bn; +40% job growth

So as we stride into the second half of 2022, together with our growing network, we remain laser focussed on continuing to support the next set of high growth entrepreneurs to dream big, scale up, and pay-it-forward. As the words inscribed on a plate from a corner café in Cape Town reminded us in the weeks past: ‘Successful entrepreneurs are time-travellers from the future’ — happy time travelling.

Kind regards,
Alison Collier
Managing Director: Endeavor South Africa