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Speaker 1: Now, not with any particular reason, but somehow. Today we're

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Speaker 1: focusing on economic optimism and positive things happening in South Africa,

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Speaker 1: but also involving other continents as well. So just to recap,

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Speaker 1: and if you missed either of these interviews, you can

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Speaker 1: go and pick them up on Primedia plus dot com.

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Speaker 1: We spoke about a really exciting development a South Africa

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Speaker 1: looks to build a pistachio nut business and to do

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Speaker 1: it on scale. There's a gap in the world market

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Speaker 1: because all of the world's pistachios are produced in the north.

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Speaker 1: It's also a crop for which you can get significant

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Speaker 1: bang for your hecta. I know that's not a term,

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Speaker 1: but it is now. So we did that interview earlier

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Speaker 1: and you can pick that up. And then we heard

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Speaker 1: about a Kenyan solar powered or electric motor cycle that

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Speaker 1: could fill a huge gap in the African market and

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Speaker 1: Stellenbosch University partnering on that again. Check that out on

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Speaker 1: the website. We're going to turn our attention to the

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Speaker 1: funding side of all of these things. There's something called

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Speaker 1: the Harvest Fund. It's been going for quite a while

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Speaker 1: now because it's now on its third iteration. Harvest Fund

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Speaker 1: three has just closed at two hundred and thirty million Rand.

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Speaker 1: It's all organized and driven by ann entity called Endeavor

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Speaker 1: South Africa. We joined now by Allison Collier, who is

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Speaker 1: CEO of Endeavor SA. But Collier, welcome and thanks very

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Speaker 1: much for your time. This is not a general fund,

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Speaker 1: as I understand it. You're looking to focus in particular

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Speaker 1: on high growth technology businesses. Tell us why that focus

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Speaker 1: and tell us what kind of success you're having, if

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Speaker 1: indeed you are good afternoon.

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Speaker 2: First, thanks so much for having me on the show,

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Speaker 2: and it's a real pleasure to be here. So our

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Speaker 2: Harvest Fund is a venture capital fund and absolutely spot on.

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Speaker 2: It focuses on investing in high growth tech businesses that

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Speaker 2: are standing globally but founded by a South African team

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Speaker 2: or having the majority of their operations here in South Africa.

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Speaker 2: But these businesses are built for the global markets and

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Speaker 2: we specifically focus on the sector because this fund has

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Speaker 2: been set up to basically leverage the incredible network and

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Speaker 2: set up entrepreneurs we've got in our portfolio as Endeavor,

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Speaker 2: our global organization, but just focusing on our South Africa portfolio.

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Speaker 2: So Endeavor, just for a little bit of context, an.

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Speaker 2: It's an engineer that's been around for now close to

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Speaker 2: thirty years. Present in forty five markets globally. Our head

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Speaker 2: offices in the US in New York. We've got regional

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Speaker 2: offices in San Francisco, London, Dubai and Singapore, but we

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Speaker 2: focused on all the emerging markets. So here in South Africa,

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Speaker 2: our office has been open since two thousand and four

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Speaker 2: and for the last now five six years, we've set

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Speaker 2: up low call Harvest Funds to invest in the portfolio

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Speaker 2: of entrepreneurs that we already have and are working with

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Speaker 2: Endeavor in nor South Africa office.

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Speaker 1: So if I were to ask you a poster child

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Speaker 1: from Harvest to or Harvest one, just so people can

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Speaker 1: actually picture the kind of company that you're investing in,

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Speaker 1: where they were when you found them and a match

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Speaker 1: was made, and where they might be now.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think probably the eliest or the most well

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Speaker 2: known example from our portfolio here in South Africa is

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Speaker 2: Time Bank. So Time Bank like where we when we

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Speaker 2: first met up with Time Bank, it was unfortunately it

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Speaker 2: wasn't when they were initially received their investment from ARC.

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Speaker 2: It was two years after that, so it was in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one twenty twenty two, and we started working

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Speaker 2: with Time Bank as endeavored the organization before we invested

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Speaker 2: in them, and endeavors here to really accelerate the growth

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Speaker 2: of businesses like Time Bank, because we know the positive

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Speaker 2: impact that a business like Time Bank has on our

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Speaker 2: local economy here in South Africa, driving revenue growth, creating jobs,

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Speaker 2: all on the back of private capital, and creating really

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Speaker 2: interesting returns for investors that then are recycled back into

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Speaker 2: our local economy. So we invested in Time Bank in

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Speaker 2: our Harvest Round two now, you know, close to four

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Speaker 2: years ago, and we've invested in multiple rounds, and specifically

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Speaker 2: in the case of Time Bank, we made the introduction

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Speaker 2: to between Time Bank and New Bank, which is one

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Speaker 2: of the largest digital banks in the world, and New

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Speaker 2: Bank led the round in December twenty twenty four which

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Speaker 2: was at evaluation of you know, one and a half

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Speaker 2: billion dollars and the round was two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: million dollars. So that's the type of support that Endeavor

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Speaker 2: looks to give to the businesses that we work within

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Speaker 2: our right, you know, local global organization. But Time Bank,

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Speaker 2: you know, Time Bank is a wonderful success story here

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Speaker 2: in South Africa and you know, more recently they've launched

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Speaker 2: in the Philippines and a few other markets in Southeast

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Speaker 2: Asia and the growth is incredibly impressive.

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Speaker 1: If we were to sort of maybe look at the

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Speaker 1: last twelve months, maybe it's a shorter period, possibly slightly longer,

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Speaker 1: and the turbulence in the world and everybody saying, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, a, we've got to be more self sufficient.

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Speaker 1: But secondly, relationships that we've you know, presumed and built

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Speaker 1: expectations and plans, investment plans on maybe things that we

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Speaker 1: can no longer rely upon. It as the book I

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Speaker 1: think there was a book called He's just not that

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Speaker 1: into you anymore, And you know, we don't need to

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Speaker 1: say who that he might be. But on the serious notes,

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Speaker 1: I mean, with that kind of tariff related and general

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Speaker 1: global geopolitics turbulence, has this fun become even more important

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Speaker 1: as people look to form new relationships but also you know,

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Speaker 1: develop great and self sufficiencies.

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Speaker 2: So for sure, one of the reasons why US as

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Speaker 2: INDEAVN South Africa set up this VC fund is we

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Speaker 2: had this portfolio of incredible entrepreneurs we were working with

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Speaker 2: here in South Africa and we knew there were turns

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Speaker 2: that they were delivering through to their investors, these private companies,

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Speaker 2: and so it made sense to set up our Harvest

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Speaker 2: Fund to also you know, generate some revenue through investing

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Speaker 2: in these businesses. But at the same time, like what

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Speaker 2: you're saying as the liquidity in the local market, right,

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Speaker 2: so introduce these businesses like what we did to New

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Speaker 2: Bank in the case of Time Bank, to the right

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Speaker 2: international investors to lead you rounds of capital that these

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Speaker 2: teams are raising and have the correct strategic investors investing

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Speaker 2: into this business. So when we say in summary, when

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Speaker 2: it comes to our Harvest VC Fund that we've set

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Speaker 2: up set up here in South Africa, it's it's absolutely

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Speaker 2: to stimulate the liquidity in our local market and really

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Speaker 2: high at that investment opportunity that sits in the space

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Speaker 2: for South African investors. Because we have really some exceptional

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Speaker 2: tech entrepreneurs that have set up their operations here in

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Speaker 2: South Africa that built their businesses to serve the world

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Speaker 2: and our currency. We get great value for money and rights.

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Speaker 2: And if you're selling and dallas and your costs are

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Speaker 2: and rund you really generate very interesting returns and the

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Speaker 2: cost of these type of skills in the larger global

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Speaker 2: market is much more expensive, so there's really good cost

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Speaker 2: efficiencies that you can you can generate.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Allison Collier, CEO of Endeavor SA

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Speaker 1: Harvest Fund three is just closed, and we'll follow with

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Speaker 1: great interest to see what companies and innovations and job

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Speaker 1: creation and wealth creation comes out of that. Hopefully it

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Speaker 1: will be abundant. Seven O two Drive