Leading pan-African venture capital firm Launch Africa Ventures has sold the 27four Nebula Fund its secondary investment in the South African fintech startup Peach Payments.
With more than 180 portfolio businesses spread over its two funds, Launch Africa Ventures is a prominent pan-African venture capital fund and one of the most active early-stage investors on the continent.
Peach Payments is a rapidly expanding African payment solution provider (PSP) that was established in Cape Town in 2012 and facilitates physical and online payments in South Africa, Kenya, and Mauritius. Launch Africa Ventures, an investor from a previous round, participated in the company’s US$31 million Series A investment round in 2023.
Launch Africa has now sold its secondary exposure in Peach Payments to 27four, a leading South African investment management and diversified financial services group, known for developing innovative, well-diversified investment solutions for both retail and institutional investors. Its Nebula Fund was launched in May 2023 to back high-growth, technology-enabled businesses.
The transaction provides the Nebula Fund with access to a high-growth African fintech business that has built a strong position in payment acceptance, processing, reconciliation, and merchant enablement. It also reflects the growing role of secondary transactions in African venture capital, creating liquidity for early investors while enabling new institutional investors to participate in companies as they scale.
“This transaction gives the 27four Nebula Fund exposure to a category-defining African fintech business through a secondary opportunity with Launch Africa Ventures,” said Tishanya Naidoo, principal at 27four. “Peach Payments has built critical payments infrastructure for merchants operating in increasingly digital and cross-border markets. We see strong alignment between the company’s growth trajectory and our mandate to back scalable, technology-enabled businesses across Africa.”
Secondary transactions are an increasingly important part of a maturing venture ecosystem, said Naidoo.
“They allow early investors to realise liquidity while giving later-stage investors the opportunity to support proven companies entering their next phase of growth. Peach Payments is a strong example of the type of African technology growth story we want to be exposed to,” he said.
The first pan-African fund to invest in Peach Payments during its seed round in 2021, according to Zachariah George, co-founder and managing partner at Launch Africa Ventures, helped the company expand from a small regional payment gateway serving small businesses in South Africa to now serving merchants of all sizes in nine African countries.
“As a specialist early-stage VC fund, the importance of secondary liquidity in African venture capital cannot be emphasised enough as a means to justify greater participation from both LPs and angel investors alike in the recycling of capital into a rapidly maturing venture ecosystem. Our partnership with 27four is an important piece of this,” he said.
