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Botswana Tech Fund (BTF), a multi-stage venture capital fund investing in technology companies across Southern Africa, has announced the first close of Botswana Tech Fund 1 at $6.7 million.
The fund is anchored by Pula Investments, the family office of Hargreaves Lansdown founder Stephen Lansdown, and powered by Launch Africa Ventures, the pan-African venture capital firm that has screened over 8,000 deals and backed more than 300 founders across 25 African countries since 2020.
Additional backers in the first close include HFL (Guernsey), Thema Capital, Zachariah George, and Janade Du Plessis.
“Now the work begins. There is a significant opportunity to help close the digital gap between our target markets and more established technology ecosystems such as South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya,” says the VC.
BTF invests across the full stack of digitisation in southern Africa, from foundational infrastructure and payment rails through to the software application layer that transforms how businesses operate day to day.
Target sectors include payment rails and financial infrastructure, FinTech software, InsuranceTech, and logistics and supply chain technology, though the fund will more broadly back any B2B technology company whose product meaningfully accelerates digitisation across the region.
The fund’s geographic mandate covers all of southern Africa, with a specific focus on the region’s frontier markets: Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and Malawi.
BTF backs four distinct types of company: ventures founded and operating in those frontier markets, South African companies expanding into the region, founders from the southern African diaspora who are returning to build, and pan-African companies expanding into southern Africa’s frontier markets.
BTF operates a dual strategy. Its accelerator programme backs pre-Seed companies based in southern Africa with $33k–134k (£25k–100k) in capital per cohort company, alongside structured support, market access, and operational guidance.
The growth strategy targets revenue-generating companies from Seed through Series C that are based in or expanding to southern Africa, deploying $670k–2.7 million (£500k–2 million) per investment in both primary and secondary opportunities.
BTF is led by Managing Partner Martin Davis, former CEO of FTSE 250-listed Molten Ventures, where he grew the portfolio to £2bn NAV and backed companies including Revolut, Trustpilot, Ledger, and UiPath.
He is joined by General Partner Florence Bavanandan, Head of Platform and Operations at Launch Africa Ventures, where she oversees infrastructure across 160+ portfolio companies and helped generate $3 billion in market capitalisation across two funds.
The fund has a strategic partnership with the Botswana Innovation Hub, giving access to deal opportunities, a base for operations, and connections within Botswana’s trade and venture ecosystem.
The fund has also committed a portion of its investment returns to the Tuli Conservation Trust, a Botswana-based non-profit focused on anti-poaching and community development in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve.
