This fund (SA SME Fund) worth R1.2 billion wants to help black businesses grow

Our priority is venture capital… dramatic changes are happening as a result of venture capital… South Africa has been very slow coming to this party…

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

Discovery was once a start-up. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

This is like Dragons’ Den on steroids!

Bruce Whitfield, The Money Show

The SA SME Fund on Tuesday launched the CEO Circle, an initiative aimed at accelerating the growth of high potential black businesses within the Fund’s shareholders’ supply chains.

The Fund aims to invest in and help scale 5 to ten black businesses with market caps of more than R500 million.

It also wants to invest in and help grow more than 200 black small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and five world-class black entrepreneurs.

These are bold goals; there are very few new companies being built in South Africa. The JSE has seen more de-listings than listings in the past 10 years. We want to reverse this trend. Businesses are a key engine for economic growth, and as big business, we can use our collective resources to help achieve this goal.

Adrian Gore, Chairperson - SA SME Fund

The SA SME FUND has pledged more than R700 million to partner funds that will invest in small businesses and start-ups.

The fund has investable capital of R1.2 billion.

The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviewed Ketso Gordhan, CEO at SA SME Fund.

Listen to the interview in the audio below (and scroll down for more quotes from it).

We are not directly investing into businesses. We’re a fund of funds…

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

We have a very high transformation target…

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

We’ve created the first biotech fund in South Africa… We have a competitive advantage; we just haven’t commercialised…

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

5G is coming… Leapfrogging is not a theoretical construct…

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

You could lose all your money. Or you could make 10 times it!

Ketso Gordhan, CEO - SA SME Fund

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