Botswana Tech Fund Secures £5 Million First Close to Support Early-Stage Startups in Southern Africa
A new venture capital fund focused on supporting early-stage technology companies across Southern Africa has achieved its first close, securing £5 million ($6.7 million) in commitments anchored by the family office of British billionaire Stephen Lansdown.
The Botswana Tech Fund (BTF), which is registered in Guernsey and has a target fund size of £50 million, said the initial capital will support a pre-seed accelerator programme as well as selected growth-stage investments in Botswana and surrounding markets.
The fund’s first major commitment comes from Pula Investments, the family office of Stephen Lansdown, co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, a UK wealth management platform that currently manages more than £150 billion in client assets.
Launch Africa Ventures, a Cape Town-based venture capital firm that has invested in more than 170 startups since 2020, has been appointed as the investment adviser for the fund.
BTF is led by two general partners: Martin Davis, former chief executive of FTSE 250-listed Molten Ventures, and Florence Bavanandan, head of platform and operations at Launch Africa.
During his time at Molten Ventures, Davis helped oversee the growth of the firm’s net asset value to approximately £2 billion before leaving the company in 2023. His involvement gives the new fund significant institutional experience for a first-time investment vehicle operating in frontier markets.
“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 announcing the first close. “We look forward to backing ambitious founders who are building solutions capable of driving that change.”
Dual Investment Strategy for Southern African Startups
The Botswana Tech Fund will operate through a dual-track investment strategy targeting both early-stage and growth-stage companies.
Through its accelerator programme, the fund plans to provide investments ranging from £25,000 to £100,000 to pre-seed startups based in Southern Africa.
Its growth investment arm will provide between £500,000 and £2 million to revenue-generating businesses from seed stage through Series C. The strategy will also include secondary purchases of existing company shares.
For the first phase of deployment, the initial £5 million will be allocated with £1 million going toward the accelerator programme, while the remaining capital will support between two and four growth-stage investments.
Unlocking Southern Africa’s Underfunded Tech Opportunity
Launch Africa co-founder Zachariah George described Southern Africa as one of the continent’s most overlooked venture markets.
“The founders building in Southern Africa’s frontier markets are operating in one of the most underleveraged digitisation opportunities on the continent,” he said. “They have been doing it largely without institutional backing.”
Botswana presents several advantages for technology investment. The country’s internet penetration is estimated at approximately 80%, placing it among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
It also ranks highly on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance and maintains an investment-grade sovereign credit profile.
The fund has established a partnership with the state-backed Botswana Innovation Hub in Gaborone, providing portfolio companies with access to office facilities, startup networks, and government-backed innovation programmes.
Despite these strengths, Southern Africa remains a relatively small player in Africa’s venture capital landscape.
According to Launch Base Africa’s 2025 report, South Africa received the majority of Southern Africa’s venture funding activity last year, while Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique collectively represented only a small share of disclosed deals.
The Botswana Tech Fund aims to address this funding gap by supporting startups in markets that have historically received limited institutional venture backing.
A Different Fund Structure
The structure of BTF differs from traditional venture capital funds.
Launch Africa will operate the fund as a managed account, allowing the firm to extend its operational infrastructure to external investors rather than placing capital into its own balance-sheet funds.
The firm stated that it has deployed $65 million across two funds since 2020 and estimates that its portfolio companies have reached an aggregate market capitalisation of $3 billion. However, this figure is based on private company valuations from previous funding rounds and has not been independently audited.
Scaling Beyond the First Close
While the initial £5 million first close represents an important milestone, it remains significantly below the fund’s £50 million target size.
The fund’s own documents describe the first phase as a proof-of-concept stage. Expanding beyond this initial deployment will depend on attracting additional institutional investors, including development finance institutions, pension funds, and funds-of-funds.
Securing more institutional capital will be essential if BTF is to expand its investment capacity and provide larger funding rounds for companies progressing toward Series B and Series C stages.
The fund’s Guernsey registration provides English-law protections and a tax-efficient structure for UK and European investors. However, it also highlights a broader challenge facing Africa-focused fund managers: limited domestic institutional capital, which often requires managers to seek funding internationally.
The long-term success of the Botswana Tech Fund will depend on whether it can attract significant capital while successfully identifying and supporting promising African founders in markets that remain unfamiliar to many international investors.
For now, the first phase provides an opportunity to establish a track record and demonstrate the potential of Southern Africa’s emerging technology ecosystem.
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