Boitumelo Mofikoe and his team on a mission to build MyGrowthFund into Africa’s largest venture capital fund

Find and nurture high-growth entrepreneurs

A young chartered account, who is passionate about scaling small businesses, says he is on a mission to build Africa’s largest venture capital fund.

And he is determined to address what he describes as an “economic problem” in the country where “all the wealth sits in one place”.

Boitumelo Mofikoe, 29, is co-founder and managing director of MyGrowthFund, a funding, incubation and boutique venture capital firm, which he runs with renowned venture capitalist Vusi Thembekwayo, in Africa’s richest square mile of Sandton in Johannesburg.

MyGrowthFund’s stated mission is to “find and nurture high-growth entrepreneurs through funding, incubation and enterprise development”.

Mofikoe, who spent 4 years at Nedbank Capital as an investment banker in private equity, structured debt origination, corporate banking and wealth management, says they are busy building a dominating continental force with MyGrowthFund.

“For us, that’s the goal and vision. We are busy in talks with the Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe governments, we are looking to set up offices in those areas, we are already in expansion mode, a lot is coming. Talks are underway,” says Mofikoe.

Mofikoe, who has also worked at Macquarie – Australia’s largest investment bank – as an equity analyst in their Sandton office for 2 years, says: “In South Africa, we have made some quick wins, we have realised the model works. There is still a lot of growth for improvement.”

He then steers the frank conversation to the contentious transformation issue in the private sector, saying: “A lot of transformation targets have not been met by big corporates, that is pretty clear for everyone to see. Our mission right now in South Africa is to transform the corporate space and even the playing field. Corporates must partner with us in order to develop entrepreneurs, we cannot do it alone.”

The journey has not been a bed of roses for the team, he says. “It has been tough, it has not been easy. I remember that when we started we did not get funding from anywhere. We started with our own money. What you are seeing now is something that culminated from our own savings, we had to make sure we invest in the business with everything we had.”

Then investments started coming their way as corporates started paying attention to what the pair were doing in building “quality businesses”.

He says the first company they took up was Side Productions. “They are the first black manufacturer of speakers in South Africa. When we took them they were turning about R2 million per annum (US$170,000). But last year they turned over R45 million (US$3.8 million).
You can imagine the rate of growth that we have put into that business,” says Mofikoe.

Mofikoe says he is very passionate about helping small businesses into becoming listed companies, explaining: “When I was in corporate, I was building big businesses. I have worked on building private companies and taking them from private to listing. I worked on strategies for growth, I worked on how you can actually scale businesses. That was part of my job description. I have a background in building small businesses and advising on strategies for growth. I decided, let me transfer the skills and take a small business from small to eventually listing.”

Mofikoe says he is interested on the impact the new president – Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership would have on the economy.

“I am excited about what he said during the State of the Nation Address, especially on developing incubation hubs, that is exciting. I have got utmost respect for Ramaphosa. Signs are there that he wants to do the right thing,” he says.

During the address, Ramaphosa said the growth of the economy would be sustained by small businesses; that they were finalizing a small business and innovation fund targeted at start-ups; and would reduce the regulatory barriers for small businesses.

Source: IOL Business Report