ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK: Payment start-up lights the way to venture capital
The message to SA start-ups: Silicon Valley, Stellenbosch are not the only games in town
Three years ago, when an unknown company called Yoco started offering a point-of-sale payments platform to small South African businesses, it was just one of numerous payment technology start-ups hoping to make a difference. This week, it secured R230m in funding from a consortium of investors that spans Silicon Valley, Europe and Africa. That brought its total venture capital injection to R322m. This followed a Series A funding round last year from Quona Capital, a US-Indian firm focused on emerging markets, and Velocity Capital, a Netherlands-based financial technology investor. The Series B round brought in Partech, headquartered in Silicon Valley with operations in Europe and Africa, as well as Dutch development bank FMO, France's Orange Digital Ventures, and SA's Futuregrowth. The vast geographical range of investors in itself sent a clear message to South African tech start-ups looking for funding: Silicon Valley and Stellenbosch are not the only games in town. But there was a...
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