Eight South African-founded businesses have secured investment from Endeavor Catalyst Fund.

Endeavor Catalyst is a rules-based co-investment fund of Endeavor Global – the largest global community of, by and for high-growth entrepreneurs, with presence in 40 markets.

The South African-founded businesses are Aerobotics, Clickatell, Entersekt, Go1, MFS Africa, Ozow, SweepSouth and TymeBank, with more than half of these investments made in the past 12 months.

To be eligible for investment from the Catalyst Fund – a cheque size of up to $2-million or 10% of the round – requires the entrepreneur to be raising an equity round of about $5-million from a qualified lead investor and must have passed an Endeavor International Panel Selection.

“The quality of high-growth, scalable businesses in South Africa is gaining traction and these eight businesses have been selected because of their noteworthy growth and global scaling.

“We have an exciting high-growth start-up community in South Africa, which is ripe for international venture capital investment. Endeavor is able to leverage its vast global network to broker direct investment, as well as mentoring the entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, accelerating global revenue growth and driving job creation in their respective markets,” says Endeavor South Africa MD Alison Collier.

All eight businesses invested in by Endeavor Catalyst are stand-outs in their categories, it posits.

For example, it notes that TymeBank is South Africa’s fastest-growing digital bank, having acquired five-million customers since launching in 2019.

Moreover, SweepSouth is an online marketplace for residential and corporate cleaning services, connecting clients with skilled cleaners in minutes. Having grown exponentially in South Africa, it has ventured beyond local borders and now has a presence in Egypt and Kenya, Endeavor Catalyst points out.