Startups in South Africa would soon have access to a new accelerator and venture capital firm in town. Based off Silicon Valley, the United States, Plug and Play, a startup business development accelerator and venture capital company has announced it would open its first African office in Johannesburg later this year.
“Plug and Play chose South Africa as the location for it’s office because it has the most developed corporate sector on the African continent to effectively link with start-ups and Johannesburg was the best city for the Plug and Play office because majority of South Africa’s corporate offices are in the city,” former Goldman Sachs investment banker, Grace Legodi, who will be heading up Plug and Play’s South Africa office said.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- Based off Silicon Valley, a southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, United States, Plug and Play is a innovation platform.
“We are an innovation platform bringing together an ecosystem of change makers with the aim of helping new technology get to market faster. When we formally launch our services in Johannesburg later this year, our initial focus will be centred around helping corporate South Africa work with start-ups in the execution of their innovation strategies. We want to help talented African start-ups to grow and become global companies that will help drive the economy, and create the jobs that we so desperately needed,” said Legodi.
- The new plan to expand across to Africa was made known at the company’s recent Covid-19 webinar series titled Digital Solutions for Africa.
- In South Africa, Plug and Play will have its office in Johannesburg but will also extend its tentacles on other major cities of South Africa such as Cape Town and Durban.
- Across the world, Plug and Play has a portfolio of over 20000 startups, 400 major corporate partners and over 180 venture capital firms in 35 global locations.
- Expansion to South Africa however does not mean the company has not invested in Africa before. Flutterwave, WorldCover and HealthLane are some of its investments on the African continent.
- Plug and Play’s strategy in South Africa is to connect South African founders with some of the country’s biggest corporations, government departments and universities in order to assist them in building some of the highest quality innovation platforms in the country as well as for the rest of the African continent.
A Look At The VC Company Plug and Play
Plug and Play Tech Center (or “Plug and Play”) is early stage investor, accelerator and corporate innovation platform with global headquarters in Sunnyvale, California in the Silicon Valley.
Plug and Play runs two programs per year in each industry and location (totaling 50 accelerator programs per year) and has 300 corporate partners and 200 venture capitalists in its ecosystem. It was recently named the ‘Most active Silicon Valley venture capital firm’ by Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Plug and Play were early investors in Google, PayPal, Dropbox, LendingClub, N26, Soundhound and Guardant Health
The company’s innovation platform consists of three pillars: venture capital, start-up business development accelerator as well as corporate innovation.
The industries the company focuses on include: Brand & Retail; Financial Technologies (Fintech); Food & Beverage; Health & Wellness; Insurance Technologies (Insurtech); Internet of Things; Mobility; New Materials & Packaging; Travel & Hospitality; Real Estate Tech (Proptech); Energy & Sustainability; Cybersecurity; Supply Chain & Logistics (Logtech); Smart Cities; Industrial Safety Technology (Safetytech).
“Plug and Play has been in the early stage investment space for over 20 years. Today, it invests in over 300 technology companies worldwide alongside our venture capital partners. Our key value proposition in the venture capital segment has been as a global investor for start-ups that have global ambitions. We have appetite to take a risk on entrepreneurs that are committed to taking a risk on themselves. Looking at the snapshot of our investment portfolio, we currently have over 900 active investments. Almost a dozen have grown to become unicorns exceeding a $1-billion valuation,” added Legodi.
“We hope that our South Africa plans will be a springboard to invest further in African technologies that can be just as successful locally as on the global stage,’’ Legodi said.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.