Status
ACTIVE
Global HQ
Cape Town, South Africa
Countries of investment
- South Africa
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Ghana
- Rwanda
Investment stages
- Pre-Seed
- Seed
Industries
- Sector agnostic
- B2B software
- Fintech
- Healthtech
- Edtech
- Marketplaces
- AgTech
About
Grindstone Ventures is the investment arm of Grindstone, a South African entrepreneurship development programme co-owned by Knife Capital and Thinkroom. It backs alumni of the accelerator, which has run twelve cohorts since 2013 and supported hundreds of founders. It is seeded by the SA SME Fund and operates across South Africa and the wider region.
Grindstone Ventures is the investment arm of Grindstone, a South African entrepreneurship development programme co-owned by Knife Capital and Thinkroom. It backs alumni of the accelerator, which has run twelve cohorts since 2013 and supported hundreds of founders. It is seeded by the SA SME Fund and operates across South Africa and the wider region.
Investment Thesis
Grindstone Ventures invests at pre-seed and seed with a thesis that acceleration and capital work better together than apart: they back companies that have come through the Grindstone programme and are demonstrably fundable. They are sector-agnostic within innovation-driven South African businesses, treating structured entrepreneurship development as the mechanism for building venture capital as an asset class locally.
Manager's Experience
The investment arm of Grindstone, a structured entrepreneurship development programme running since 2013 and co-owned by Knife Capital and Thinkroom Consulting. Seeded and supported by the SA SME Fund, without which the firm states neither Grindstone nor Grindstone Ventures would have achieved its growth. Has run twelve cohorts and supported hundreds of founders, with alumni including Where Is My Transport, Electrum, Payfast, DataEQ, Lula, Franc, Botlhale and AgrilogiQ. Partners have included Anglo American, ABSA, Deloitte, AWS, Google for Startups, Microsoft for Startups, Naspers Labs and Webber Wentzel. Uses acceleration explicitly as a mechanism for growing venture capital as an asset class in the markets where it operates.
Team
Keet van Zyl-Co-Founder (Knife Capital)
Andrea Bohmert-Co-Founder (Knife Capital)
Lucie Fink-Team Member
Thandiwe Maqetuka-Team Member
Portfolio
Where Is My Transport
Electrum
Payfast
DataEQ
Lula
Franc
Botlhale
AgrilogiQ
Quicket
Custos
LOCSTAT
Kudos One
Hubtiger
Munch
Sticitt
OneCart
Luxity
gwork
Locumbase
Sea Monster
TaxTim
Nona
Shopstar
CarScan
Drone Scan