The Botswana Tech Fund (BTF) has reached its first close at $6.7 million, marking a significant milestone for the venture capital fund that launched earlier this year with ambitions to deploy £50 million into technology and tech-enabled businesses across Southern Africa.
The fund announced the first close this week, thanking a group of investors and partners that includes Pula Investments, Launch Africa Ventures, HFL (Guernsey), Thema, and a number of ecosystem stakeholders who supported the fundraising effort.
The first close provides the fund with capital to begin executing its investment strategy, which spans both early-stage startups and more mature growth companies operating in Southern Africa.
BTF was launched in April as a multi-stage venture capital fund targeting businesses that are either based in the region or expanding into Southern African markets. The fund is anchored by Pula Investments, the family office of British entrepreneur and Hargreaves Lansdown founder Stephen Lansdown, and is powered by Launch Africa Ventures, one of the continent's most active early-stage investors.
The fund's accelerator programme is designed to invest between £25,000 and £100,000 in pre-seed startups, while its growth strategy targets seed to Series C companies with investments ranging from £500,000 to £2 million.
In announcing the first close, BTF said it sees a substantial opportunity to help narrow the digital gap between Southern African markets and more established African technology ecosystems such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
"There is a significant opportunity to help close the digital gap between our target markets and more established technology ecosystems such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya," the fund said in a statement. "We look forward to backing ambitious founders who are building solutions capable of driving that change."
The fund is being led by Martin Davis, the former chief executive of London-listed venture capital firm Molten Ventures, where he oversaw a portfolio that grew to £2 billion in net asset value and included investments in companies such as Revolut, Trustpilot, UiPath and Ledger.
He is joined by Florence Bavanandan, who serves as General Partner and is also Head of Platform and Operations at Launch Africa Ventures. Through its partnership with Launch Africa, BTF gains access to a network that has screened more than 8,000 startups and invested in over 160 ventures across 25 African countries.
Botswana has been positioned as the fund's operational hub, with BTF citing the country's governance credentials, relatively high internet penetration and its location within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as key advantages for building a regional investment platform.
The first close comes at a time when venture capital activity across Africa has slowed from the record levels seen during the global technology boom of 2021 and 2022. Against that backdrop, the successful fundraising represents a vote of confidence in Southern Africa's startup ecosystem and in Botswana's ambition to establish itself as a gateway for regional technology investment.
With capital now secured, the fund is expected to begin deploying investments into startups and growth-stage businesses seeking to build digital solutions for markets across the region.