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Black Entrepreneur Fund in South Africa to Raise More Capital

Black Entrepreneur Fund in South Africa to Raise More Capital

(Bloomberg) --

A fund created by South African companies to help startups is seeking more cash after allocating all of its capital during its first year.

The 1.4 billion rand ($88 million) SA SME Fund was contributed to by 50 companies including Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Standard Bank Group Ltd. with the aim providing financing for black entrepreneurs.

The fund has distributed its money to enterprises ranging from 4Di Capital, a technology venture-capital fund, to A2Pay, which supplies point-of-sale equipment to informal supermarkets in townships and lends them money to expand. Other recipients include a biotech fund and an all-women owned and managed private-equity firm.

The organization, which is chaired by Discovery Ltd. Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Adrian Gore, is now seeking to raise a further 1 billion rand. Its aim is to try and boost the participation of black businesses in the economy after their exclusion during apartheid.

“We are talking to everybody,” SA SME CEO Ketso Gordhan said in an interview in Johannesburg. “Development-finance institutions, family offices, companies. Venture capital is our future.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, John Bowker, Vernon Wessels

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