Botswana has launched the Botswana Tech Fund (BTF), a £50 million venture fund aimed at supporting startups across Southern Africa.
Launch Africa Ventures has been appointed as the investment advisor for Phase One of the fund, marking an expansion of its role beyond deploying its own capital into managing third-party investment mandates.
The Botswana Tech Fund is designed to back startups from pre-seed through to growth stages. The fund targets total commitments of £50 million. This initial phase includes £1 million allocated to a pre-seed accelerator cohort.
Startups in the accelerator programme will receive between £25,000 and £100,000 in funding, in addition to structured support and market access. Growth-stage companies will be eligible for investments ranging from £500,000 to £2 million.
The fund is anchored by Pula Investments, the family office of Stephen Lansdown.
It is led by Managing Partner Martin Davis, former CEO of Molten Ventures, and General Partner Florence Bavanandan, Head of Platform and Operations at Launch Africa Ventures.
The fund has partnered with Botswana Innovation Hub to provide portfolio companies with access to infrastructure, deal flow, and integration into the local innovation landscape.
“The founders building in Southern Africa’s frontier markets are operating in one of the most underleveraged digitisation opportunities on the continent,” said Zachariah George, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures.
“They have been doing it largely without institutional backing. This is a fantastic opportunity for founders at every stage of their journey and will be truly catalytic for the ecosystem.”
The Botswana Tech Fund will invest in startups operating across Southern Africa, with a focus on businesses building digital solutions for the region’s real economy.
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