Grace Ashiru
South African impact investor E Squared Investments deployed more than R300 million into local startups in 2025, bringing its total capital deployed to R1.37 billion across 227 ventures since its founding in 2017.
The Allan Gray-backed firm describes itself as a provider of funding and end-to-end business support to high-growth businesses. It owns just under 18% of Allan Gray Proprietary, using dividends from that stake as a source of capital for its investment activities.
The 2025 breakdown includes R160 million directed to high-growth and scalable ventures, R32 million in pre-seed capital, R10 million for seed to Series A+ ventures, and R36 million for social enterprises. Of the total, 92% went to black beneficiaries while 62% supported black-women-owned businesses.
Portfolio companies span agritech, data integration, and financial literacy. E Squared has backed startups including agriculture firms Khula! and SwiftVEE, data automation company Synatic, and financial literacy platform Fintr.
The firm realised R137 million in investment returns, including R31 million in 2025 through partial exits. Its venture portfolio’s fair market value rose 16% year on year to R987 million, translating into a 44% return on capital.
CEO Gladwyn Leeuw said entrepreneurs continue to build in an environment where capital remains scarce and the margin for error is limited, reinforcing the importance of patient, long-term support. South Africa’s VC market saw R3.29 billion deployed in 2024 according to SAVCA data, the majority of it into technology and health businesses
