Umnotho backs proven small companies across Africa, led by healthcare, and helps them grow to the point where larger investors want in.
We are a R300 million pan-African venture fund in formation, managed from Johannesburg by four partners based in South Africa and the United States.
Fund in formation · private placementraised by African startups across 502 deals in 2025, up about 53% on the year before.
of that funding went to the Big Four hubs: South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria.
growth in African healthtech funding in 2025, the fastest-scaling venture sector on the continent.
Figures are third-party market estimates for calendar 2025, rounded.
Healthtech funding rose by about 230% in 2025. Pan-African lab networks, AI health platforms and hospital groups are buying and backing local businesses — InstaDeep to BioNTech and Quro Medical to Netcare are recent examples.
Roughly US$1.45 billion of dollar-priced Series B equity was raised in the hubs in 2025. That depth gives later-stage investors a reason to buy into African companies, and gives early investors a way to sell.
South Africa is opening state infrastructure to private capital on a scale not seen since 1994, and critical minerals are drawing investment across the Copperbelt and the platinum belt. We back the services and technology layer around these assets, not the commodity itself.
Chinese capital (including the US$1.4 billion TAZARA rail concession) and US and European capital (including the Lobito corridor) are building out the same regions. The companies that serve that build-out need growth capital.
Information on the fund is available to qualifying investors on request.
Contact the partnersWe invest where African prices are still African, and sell to the investors who arrive once a company has proved itself.
We invest at Seed and Series A in businesses that already have customers and revenue, and take a meaningful minority stake. A company at this stage in Africa typically prices well below a US peer with the same progress.
We support the companies that are working with follow-on capital and practical help, so they can meet the standards a Series B investor expects: audited numbers, governance and a team that can scale.
When a company raises its Series B, we offer most of our stake to the incoming investors. That returns cash earlier than waiting for a full exit and makes room for larger, longer-term owners.
We keep a smaller holding and stay aligned with the company through to a trade sale or other final exit.
The Manager charges no transaction, monitoring, board or exit fees to portfolio companies.
Small companies often lose time on work that is not their core business. The Manager runs a portfolio services team that portfolio companies can use directly:
Low-end market rates. Services are priced at the lower end of what the market charges, and the rate card is benchmarked every year.
No compulsion. Any portfolio company may buy these services elsewhere, or not at all.
Overseen by investors. The investor advisory committee reviews these related-party services and the rate card.
We invest across Africa, concentrated in the four largest venture hubs, in sectors where local companies solve local problems at scale.
Clinics, diagnostics, pharmacy and health technology that widen access to care. It is the fastest-growing venture sector on the continent, and the one with the most active strategic buyers.
Businesses that help farmers produce more, store it better and get it to market — the supply chain around food rather than land itself.
Companies that build, power, maintain and digitise the infrastructure that is now opening to private capital.
We own the services and technology layer around mining, not mines. Our companies sell to operators; they do not hold extraction assets.
Together these four markets attracted about 83% of African startup funding in 2025. We also look selectively at Ghana, Rwanda, the CFA franc zone and Zambia.
Market transactions, listed for context. None involved Umnotho.
Each partner owns an equal share of the Manager and is accountable for named sectors. The United States-based partners lead healthcare; the South Africa-based partners lead infrastructure & energy and mining services; agriculture is shared across the team.
Managing Partner · Finance
Partner
Partner · Business development and investor relations
Partner · Venture capital and M&A
| Partner | Healthcare | Agriculture | Infra & energy | Mining services |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wesley Ncube | ||||
| Tami Khumalo | ||||
| Tony Holt | ||||
| Reggie Holt |
Each sector will also have an independent adviser on the fund's Advisory Committee.
The fund is being set up with the controls institutional investors expect, written into its constitutional documents from the start.
Every investment and exit decision is taken by the Investment Committee: the four partners, with provision for up to two independent members.
Investor representatives review conflicts of interest, valuation challenges, related-party portfolio services and their rate card, and any extension of the fund's term.
A third-party fund administrator keeps the fund's books, processes capital calls and distributions, and maintains the investor register.
The fund's annual financial statements are audited by an independent auditor and sent to investors, with quarterly reports in between.
Portfolio companies are valued under a written policy that follows the International Private Equity and Venture Capital (IPEV) Valuation Guidelines.
A written anti-bribery and government-interaction policy binds the partners and the Manager in every market where the fund invests.
Conflicts of interest are recorded, disclosed and referred to the investor advisory committee where required.
The Manager holds, and must maintain, all licences and authorisations required under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS Act) and other applicable law.
Information on the fund is available to qualifying investors on request. We are also glad to hear from founders in our sectors.
The fund is raised by private placement to qualifying investors only. Fund documents are shared on request, once we have confirmed that you qualify.
We look for companies in healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure & energy and mining services that already have customers and revenue, in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria and selected other markets.