• Botswana Tech Fund launched a £50 million ($67.5 million) investment vehicle on April 21, 2026, targeting technology start-ups across Southern Africa.
• The fund, backed by Pula Investments and Stephen Lansdown’s family office, will invest from pre-seed to scale-up stages, including secondary market transactions.
• The initiative aims to strengthen a structurally underfunded Southern African venture capital ecosystem amid broader market normalization in Africa.

The Botswana Tech Fund has launched a £50 million (approximately $67.5 million) investment vehicle to support technology start-ups across Southern Africa, as the region seeks to close a persistent funding gap in venture capital.

The fund, based in Gaborone, announced its launch on Tuesday, April 21. Pula Investments, the family office of Stephen Lansdown, cofounder of UK financial services group Hargreaves Lansdown, backed the vehicle.

The Botswana Tech Fund structured its investment strategy to cover multiple stages of company development. It targeted early-stage start-ups at pre-seed level as well as more advanced scale-ups. It planned to deploy capital through seed investments and growth-stage equity stakes, while it also included secondary market transactions to improve liquidity for investors and founders.

The initiative came as Southern Africa continued to develop its venture capital ecosystem, which remained constrained by structural funding shortages, particularly in application technologies and digital infrastructure. The region still relied heavily on foreign capital despite the gradual emergence of local investment initiatives.

The fund positioned Botswana as a strategic entry point for technology investment, citing an internet penetration rate of approximately 80% and a relatively stable governance environment. It also highlighted the broader Southern African Development Community (SADC) market, which represented a population of more than 370 million people.

Market data from Partech Africa and Briter Bridges showed that African start-ups raised between $3 billion and $4 billion in 2025, down from a peak above $6 billion in 2022. The data indicated a normalization of venture capital flows, characterized by stricter investor selection and concentration of funding in more mature markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.

The Botswana Tech Fund stated that it aimed to reposition Southern Africa within the African venture capital landscape by structuring more tailored financing solutions and improving access to capital for founders.

Samira Njoya