Hlayisani Capital

Hlayisani Capital is a Johannesburg-based venture capital firm founded in 2016 through a partnership between Angelhub Ventures and Dzana Investments (founded by Dr. Reuel Khoza, who also chairs the Public Investment Corporation). Led by partners Brett Commaille, Mathew Palin, Nkateko Khoza, and Eugene van Rensburg, the firm manages over R1 billion (~$60 million) across three funds and is Black-owned with a Level 2 B-BBEE rating (51% Black-owned, 39% Black women ownership).

The firm's first vehicle, the Hlayisani Growth Fund, reached a R354 million final close in 2021, and the second fund (HVF II) closed at R500 million (~$30 million) in March 2026 with the PIC and SA SME Fund as cornerstone investors. The investment thesis targets a specific gap in South Africa's ecosystem: while seed funding has improved, growth-stage capital (typically Series A rounds of R50 million to R100 million) remains scarce, which means promising South African tech companies stall before reaching the scale needed to attract traditional PE or international growth equity. The portfolio spans AI, fintech, healthtech, edtech, and digital infrastructure, with current Fund II investments including Tractor Outdoor Media (digital outdoor advertising), Spatialedge (enterprise machine learning tools, which received R60 million from the Growth Fund in 2024), and Cogitait AI (automation and operational intelligence). Earlier investments include Snapplify (edtech), d6 Group (school management software), Ikeja (wireless internet infrastructure), Wyzetalk (employee engagement platform), and GoMetro (mobility and transit technology).