Silvertree to invest $10 million in African startups in 2016

Posted on January 12th, 2016
Articles

Silvertree to invest $10 million in African startups in 2016

Cape Town-based consumer-focused Internet platform, Silvertree Internet Holdings, has announced its plans to invest $10 million (R158 million) in African startups and ecommerce enterprises in 2016 through the company’s investment arm, Silvertree Capital. This is double the $5 million (R75 million) the company invested in company acquisitions and business building in 2015.

Silvertree Internet Holdings operates an owner-operator model, “focusing on scaling tech and commerce companies across small, fast-growing niches,” according to a press release by the company.

Its consumer-focused ecommerce platforms include Click n CompareFaithful to NatureCyber CellarHealthcart and recently -acquired PriceCheck.

The company says the focus of investments will be on South Africa, “but with an eye on other emerging markets on the continent, specifically Nigeria and Kenya.”

Peter Allerstorfer, founder and MD, expands on the kind of online companies they are looking to join its owner-operator portfolio.

“We are not an incubator, we are not a VC – we are in the business of building businesses, through accelerated, highly targeted investment and growth strategies, with proven businesses. We are entrepreneurs who invest in like-minded entrepreneurs. Our search for young, dynamic, hungry talent who want to scale faster and outpace their competitors, will be a key focus for us in 2016,” says Allerstorfer.

Growth trajectory

The company also announced that it recorded 330% year-on-year growth for 2015 to more than $10 million in revenue, its strongest year since operations began in 2013.

Manuel Koser, founder and MD says: “Our meteoric growth in 2015 has been driven by execution-focused delivery across all of our portfolio companies, as well as a number of company acquisitions that are already delivering positive returns. Our job now is to build on this momentum to maintain our aggressive growth trajectory and cement our dominance in the African ecommerce and price comparison markets.”