Launch Africa Ventures

Launch Africa Ventures is the most active early-stage VC in Africa by deal count, having backed 180+ companies across 25+ countries since launching in July 2020. The fund was co-founded by Zachariah George (a former Wall Street M&A banker at Lehman Brothers and Barclays who moved to South Africa during the 2010 World Cup) and Janade Du Plessis (a former Chief Investment Officer at the African Development Bank with experience at Goldman Sachs, Standard Bank, and RMB). Their approach is "high touch, high scale," combining broad geographic coverage with hands-on asset management where each team member is directly responsible for 10 to 15 portfolio companies.

Fund I (Seed Fund I) closed in March 2022 at $36.3M from 238 retail and institutional investors across 40 countries, and deployed $31M into 133 startups across 22 countries. The fund is generating a 31% IRR, has returned approximately $2.5M in distributions to LPs, and reports only a 12% startup failure rate, which is unusually low for venture capital. Fund II ($64M first close) is actively deploying, and a Mezzanine Impact Fund targeting growth-stage companies launched in September 2024.

What sets Launch Africa apart is their volume-driven thesis combined with a sophisticated secondary exit strategy. Rather than depending solely on IPOs or acquisitions, the firm actively sells second and third-quintile portfolio companies via secondary sales to PE firms, corporates, and funds of funds, while holding their top-quintile assets for maximum upside. This creates a more reliable liquidity path than most early-stage African funds can offer, which is a meaningful advantage for LPs and indirectly for founders (since it means the fund can stay patient with its best performers).