A Stellenbosch-based technology investment group, Alphawave Group has received an R100-million investment from Kagiso Capital, an investment holding company.
Alphawave is a specialized technology investment group supporting businesses seeking to do things that are complex to replicate. As organizations require more information about the world, their products and their customers, our group provides actionable intelligence in an always connected world. The portfolio is focused on the Internet of Everything (IoE), consisting of 12 companies, with exceptional domain expertise in interconnected sensor technology, artificial intelligence, electromagnetic fields and virtual reality.
In an official press release, Frans Meyer, CEO of Alphawave Group, explains how the investment will increase the speed of expansion for their group.
“This investment demonstrates the success we have had in developing valuable technology businesses – our track record, our exits, but mostly our careful eye in attracting and growing the best engineering talent in South Africa. Before Lockdown, we had multiple investment companies talking to us but we were not actively looking for funding. We generate cash from established businesses in our portfolio to invest in new ventures. This is how we started Skynamo and Inrange – our latest technology ventures now expanding rapidly on the international stage. Capital of this kind can, however, accelerate the current businesses. It allows us to attract top talent more aggressively, finding technical people with sound engineering ethos and unique, internationally competitive skills in the Internet of Everything domains we specialise in. Furthermore, the capital allows us to accelerate building our Group, as opposed to us growing organically. The restriction of bootstrapping potential new businesses has been released.”
According to the reports, Kagiso Capital invested in Alphawave Group to expand into the advanced technologies space. Alphawave Group tests product-market fit and provides crucial funding to incubate products for tech startups.
Strategic Investments
Kgotso Schoeman, Chief Executive Officer of Kagiso Capital, explains the collaboration between Kagiso and Alphawave is an investment strategy to amplify SA innovative ideas and take it globally.
“We want to rapidly impact innovation in this country and we think Kagiso’s interest and contribution on strategy, together with Alphawave’s experience and skills, could have profound effects, drawing talent from the broader demographics of our country into internationally competitive science and engineering firms. They will maintain their independence and team culture while we get to be partners in developing South African ideas that can be taken to a global market.”
With a focus on the Internet of Everything (IOE), Alphawave Group’s 12 businesses are leaders in sensor technology, electronic design, and development, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, software development along with virtual and augmented reality.
- Alphawave Group aims to accelerate commercial technology companies.
- Alphawave aims to create innovative solutions to solve complex global issues through IOE themes and capabilities.
Approaching business in SA
The investment deal was solidified during level five of lockdown in SA on 30 March. The collaboration allowed Alphawave’s 140 engineers and computer scientists to solve problems through themes of IOE.
Lebogang Mosiane, Chief Operations Officer at Kagiso Capital, explains the need to highlight SA innovators which remains one of the core factors in their collaboration with Alphawave Group.
“All too often, venture capital has no sense of ‘proudly South African’. Our interest is about a clear end game; a long journey to establish something of real value – local innovation, with local talent, that we export out and can claim as ours. This is not just the typical risk-return transaction, it’s about the pride of what South Africans can accomplish in a culturally diverse society. That’s what this meeting of minds offers. You wouldn’t typically put us together, a 25-year-old Stellenbosch based technology company with a black investment capital firm, but it makes so much sense. This is how we should be approaching business in South Africa – where we can complement each other.”
