HAVAÍC Announces 2nd Close Of Its USD 50 M African Tech Fund

Cape Town venture capital firm HAVAÍC has secured USD 25 M toward its USD 50 M African Innovation Fund 3, with major backing from financial services group Sanlam Multi-Manager. The fund targets 15 early-stage African tech startups with global potential, focusing on fintech, agritech and other high-growth sectors.

The investment marks Sanlam’s first significant move into South Africa’s VC space, joining existing backers Fireball Capital and the SA SME Fund. HAVAÍC has already deployed capital from the fund, including USD 1 M investments in SAPay (digitising taxi payments) and sports analytics platform Sportable. These join earlier 2025 investments in pan-African payments platform NjiaPay and livestock trading platform SwiftVEE.

The announcement follows several successful exits from HAVAÍC’s portfolio, most notably emergency response tech firm RapidDeploy’s acquisition by Motorola Solutions; one of South Africa’s largest tech exits. Another portfolio company, hearX Group, recently merged with hearing tech firm Eargo in a USD 100 M deal.

With its current portfolio already serving 22 million customers across 183 countries, HAVAÍC is positioning itself as a key player in Africa’s growing VC landscape. The firm plans to continue identifying and supporting African tech entrepreneurs building scalable solutions, with particular interest in businesses that can expand across multiple African markets and beyond. The remaining USD 25 M of the fund is expected to be raised in the coming months.