Jesaya Hano-Oshike: How this $10 million fund plans to back Southern Africa’s innovators For years, Southern Africa’s startup ecosystem has found itself stuck in an uncomfortable position. The region has no shortage of entrepreneurs building interesting businesses, yet very little venture capital flows into markets outside South Africa. Jesaya Hano-Oshike, Managing Director of Bellatrix Investment Managers, believes that the gap represents an opportunity. Bellatrix recently launched the Ndjaba Seed Fund, a $10 million venture capital vehicle focused on backing early-stage startups across Southern Africa. The fund will invest in between 35 and 50 startups over a 10-year period, targeting sectors such as fintech, healthcare, agriculture value chains, cleantech, e-commerce, and enterprise software. Speaking on the Tech Aways Podcast, Hano-Oshike said the idea behind the fund emerged from observing how African startup funding continues concentrating in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa, while founders in countries like Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe struggle to access capital. “Most of the funding that comes to Africa goes into the big four markets,” he said. “Very little then trickles down to the rest of the countries.” Rather than seeing Southern Africa’s fragmented markets as a weakness, Bellatrix sees them as an overlooked regional opportunity. Hano-Oshike argues that investors often underestimate the scale of the broader SADC market because they evaluate countries individually instead of as a connected economic bloc. “People look at Namibia or Botswana individually and say the markets are small,” he said. “But if you look at SADC as a whole, it is a 400 million population market.” The fund itself will operate across two layers of investment. At the pre-seed stage, Bellatrix plans to back startups that have moved beyond the idea stage and already have an MVP, early users, or limited traction. These startups will typically receive between $25,000 and $150,000 to help them refine products and build early revenue streams. The majority of the capital, however, will go toward seed-stage businesses already showing meaningful traction or generating revenue. Bellatrix wants those startups to use the capital to scale into neighbouring Southern African markets before eventually raising larger rounds from international investors or private equity firms. Importantly, Hano-Oshike says the fund is not trying to become a controlling shareholder in startups. Bellatrix intends to take minority positions, generally below 30%, while remaining flexible on structures depending on the maturity of the business. While equity will remain the preferred structure, the firm is also open to convertible debt and SAFEs in specific situations. “We’re looking at equity first,” Hano-Oshike said, noting that alternative financing structures would mostly be used on a case-by-case basis for more mature businesses with predictable cash flows. What also differentiates the Ndjaba Seed Fund from many traditional VC firms is its emphasis on operational support. Bellatrix says it does not want to function purely as a provider of capital. Instead, the firm plans to work closely with founders on governance, operations, marketing, finance, and regional expansion strategy. Part of that support system already exists through Basecamp Business Incubator, a Namibian incubator Bellatrix helps operate. According to Hano-Oshike, the incubator has already worked with more than 3,000 entrepreneurs over the past three and a half years, giving the firm an established founder pipeline and ecosystem network. The fund also plans to collaborate with incubators and accelerators across Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, and other Southern African countries to source startups and support founders after investment. When evaluating startups, Bellatrix says it will prioritise both market potential and founder quality. “It can be a great idea, but if the team is not great, the likelihood of success is not that high,” Hano-Oshike said. Beyond venture capital itself, the launch of the Ndjaba Seed Fund reflects a broader ambition around Southern Africa’s role in technology development. Hano-Oshike believes the region needs to move beyond simply consuming technology developed elsewhere and begin building more locally relevant innovation ecosystems — particularly around emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. “We should not only be followers,” he said. “We should also try to be leaders in technology.” Application form: https://mulastream.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit techaways.substack.com
