New studies by the SA SME Fund, Endeavor South Africa and SAVCA show local venture capital can deliver attractive investor returns, job creation and financial inclusion impact

South Africa's venture capital ecosystem is beginning to close one of the most important gaps in its growth story: exits.

Two new studies by the SA SME Fund, Endeavor South Africa and SAVCA provide compelling evidence that local venture capital can deliver both meaningful investor returns and broader economic impact. Together, they show that South African venture-backed scale-ups are generating successful exits, while the asset class itself is producing realised returns broadly consistent with more mature international venture capital markets.

The broader South African Venture Capital: Exit & Performance Analysis, which looked at 226 realised exits reported by South African venture capital fund managers between 2009 and 2026, found that realised cash returns substantially exceeded invested capital, with capital-weighted realised returns ranging from 2.01x to 2.45x invested capital across the scenarios analysed.

The research also found that South African venture capital has delivered realised return characteristics broadly in line with those observed in more mature markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and India, providing growing evidence that venture capital is becoming an increasingly attractive asset class for long-term investors.

The Exit Case Studies Analysis looks at 18 South African venture capital-backed exits (across 21 investment rounds) between 2014 and 2026.  

The Exit Case Studies Analysis found that the sampled exits delivered a median gross internal rate of return (IRR) of 54%, a median gross money-on-invested-capital (MOIC) of 3.5x, and a median valuation at exit of approximately R1.6 billion. Beyond investor returns, the broader high-growth sector that these companies operate in, has seen revenue growth by 256% and employment growing by 49% since 2021. Collectively, the exited companies created more than 4,000 direct jobs, averaging around 230 South African jobs per company, highlighting the broader economic impact of South Africa's high-growth scale-ups.

Together, the findings suggest South Africa's venture capital ecosystem is moving beyond isolated success stories towards a more mature investment market capable of attracting greater institutional capital.

The findings challenge the long-held perception that South Africa can produce promising young companies but struggles to produce sufficient venture-scale exits. While the market remains relatively young by global standards, the data points to a clear shift: exits are increasing in size, pathways are diversifying, and several landmark transactions have taken place in the past two years.

Recent examples include Mastercard's pending acquisition of BVNK, RapidDeploy's acquisition by Motorola Solutions, iKhokha's acquisition by Nedbank, Adumo's acquisition by Lesaka, Quicket's acquisition by Ticketmaster, and Optasia's listing on the JSE. Together, these transactions show that South African-founded and South African-backed companies are increasingly attracting strategic buyers, global investors and public market interest.

Ketso Gordhan, CEO of the SA SME Fund, says the emergence of stronger exit evidence is significant because exits are the mechanism through which venture capital proves its ability to recycle capital, reward risk and attract new investment into the ecosystem.

"South Africa has long had entrepreneurial talent, credible founders and strong technology capability. What has been less visible is the proof that investors can realise meaningful returns from backing these companies. These studies show that the exit market is no longer theoretical. It is starting to happen, and it is happening across different pathways," says Gordhan.

The report identifies four main exit routes now active in the South African venture capital ecosystem: international mergers and acquisitions, domestic mergers and acquisitions, secondary transactions and, more recently, IPOs. International M&A has historically been the most common route, with South African-built companies being acquired by global strategic buyers.

However, domestic M&A has gained traction, particularly in fintech, as banks, insurers, retailers and listed technology businesses increasingly acquire or partner with scale-ups to strengthen their own digital capabilities.

Secondaries are emerging as an increasingly important liquidity route as larger scale-ups attract international growth capital. At the same time, Optasia's R23.5 billion JSE listing demonstrates that public markets are becoming a credible exit pathway for African fintech businesses reaching global scale.

Alison Collier, Managing Director of Endeavor South Africa, says the data shows that South African scale-ups are no longer only building for local relevance.

"The strongest companies in this study were built from South Africa, but not only for South Africa. They solved real market problems, used technology to scale efficiently, and in many cases expanded into regional or global markets. It is this combination that makes them attractive to acquirers and investors," says Collier.  "The missing piece in the South African venture story has been exits. We are now seeing evidence that this gap is closing. This is critical because exits create confidence. They return capital to investors, reward founders and employees, and create the next generation of investors, mentors and repeat entrepreneurs."

Fintech features strongly in the study, reflecting South Africa's long history of financial services innovation and the role of banks, telcos and retailers as both customers and potential exit partners for emerging technology businesses. More than half of the top 20 fintech exits in Africa since 2019 have involved South African businesses, according to the report.

The impact extends beyond investor returns. The study highlights how fintech innovation has helped drive financial inclusion at scale by lowering banking costs, reducing remittance costs, enabling digital payments, expanding SME finance, and giving informal and small businesses access to financial tools previously available mainly to larger enterprises.

Examples include GoTymeBank, which has grown to more than 21 million customers across South Africa and the Philippines; iKhokha, which has processed more than R20 billion in digital payments and provided more than R3 billion in working capital to SMEs; PayFast, which enabled tens of thousands of merchants to accept online payments; and Retail Capital, which has provided funding to more than 50,000 businesses.

Karl Westvig, founder of Retail Capital, which was acquired by TymeBank, says successful exits create benefits that extend well beyond investors. "The real value of an exit is what happens the day after. Capital gets recycled, and founders and teams walk away with proof it can be done here. Most of them go again, as angels, operators or mentors. That's how an ecosystem compounds, and the pipeline highlighted in these studies suggests the next cycle is already forming."

SAVCA says the combined findings provide important evidence for institutional investors assessing South African venture capital as an asset class.

"The ability to demonstrate realised exits is fundamental to the development of any private capital market," says Anusha Naidu, CEO of SAVCA. "These studies show that South African venture-backed companies are beginning to deliver realised return characteristics comparable with more mature international markets, while also contributing to employment, innovation and financial inclusion. This provides important evidence for pension funds, family offices, development finance institutions and other long-term capital providers evaluating venture capital as part of a diversified investment portfolio."

While recent exits demonstrate growing maturity, the research suggests the strongest wave may still lie ahead. The case study identifies more than 20 privately held South African high-growth companies with significant local operations that have each raised more than US$25 million, while the broader asset class study shows that more than 1,100 companies have received VC funding since 2016. With a median holding period of approximately six years, much of the capital deployed in recent years has yet to reach typical exit maturity, suggesting a significant pipeline of future exits is already developing.

Gordhan says this represents an important moment for South Africa's innovation economy.

"If we want more high-growth companies, more jobs and more globally competitive businesses, we need to deepen the pool of capital available to founders and fund managers. Exits are the evidence investors need to come back, write bigger cheques and stay the course. These studies show that the flywheel is starting to turn."

Collier adds: "The opportunity now is to build on this momentum. South Africa has the entrepreneurial talent, market opportunities, corporate depth and investment capability to produce many more globally relevant scale-ups. The more we support founders to scale and achieve successful exits, the stronger and more self-sustaining our innovation ecosystem becomes."