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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nE Squared Fund of Funds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The event\u2019s host, E Squared, aligns strongly with these ideas, with its primary goal being to invest and support Allan Gray Fellow-led ventures, social enterprises, and high-growth businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, its disbursed investment amounted to R316 million, bringing its total since inception to R1.34 billion and creating and supporting 37,756 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This considerable sum is divided between several portfolios, including E Squared Ventures (R160 million), E Squared Fund of Funds (R78 million), and Social Entrepreneurship (R26 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among these, its Fund of Funds portfolio proved a powerful tool for building sustainable businesses, with its mandate evolving from a seed-focused vehicle to a diversified, multi-stage approach to portfolio construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The E Squared Fund of Funds was launched with a primary focus on seed-stage capital deployment, with R300 million being invested in High Impact Seed Funds alongside the SA SME Fund and the Department of Science and Innovation through the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, however, it had evolved to become a diversified, multi-stage portfolio, providing exposure across sectors, growth-stage opportunities, and private equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This change came with a new dual purpose: building a diversified investment portfolio from proven funds, while also catalysing the funding ecosystem through up-and-coming fund managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This provides financial security for E Squared, while also giving greater access to funding for emerging fund managers \u2013 better supporting black- and female-led fund managers who still face barriers in raising institutional capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fund of Funds has proven to be a highly effective vehicle for E Squared, enabling it to help bringin additional capital, strengthen fund managers’ capabilities, and increase the flow of funding to diverse founders and high-potential businesses across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
E Squared\u2019s Fund of Funds has invested a total of R210 million since its inception and currently comprises three funds that support 33 underlying companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These three funds include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3 Capital Ventures (3CV)<\/strong> \u2013 Invests in early-stage, high-growth startups with capital, strategic guidance and networking support.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSA SME High Impact Seed Fund of Funds (HISFOF)<\/strong> \u2013 Collaborates with the SA SME and TIA to deploy capital to technology-driven startups via experienced fund managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSecha Capital<\/strong> \u2013 An execution capital model that combines funding with embedded operational talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFor 2026, the Fund of Funds enters the year with a firm, diversified foundation and the strategic goal of continued portfolio construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This includes identifying and onboarding fund manager partnerships that complement the existing portfolio while maintaining the commercial discipline required for capital recycling and long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Measurable impact \u2013 Alignd<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The best indicator of the impact E Squared is having can be found through its portfolio of companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An example of one of these is Alignd, an initiative that aims to improve palliative care, addressing the issue that many patients receive unsupportive care that doesn\u2019t address their symptoms and fails to deliver meaningful clinical benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
E Squared support for Alignd goes beyond just capital, as it actively provides strategic input to strengthen its operating model, prepare for new investment, and expand its value-based care approach<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since its inception, Alignd has supported more than 6,000 families and, through partnerships, provided meaningful palliative care benefits to more than 3 million people via medical schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These partnerships include cooperation with the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), Bonitas, Fedhealth, AECI Medical Aid Society, Parmed Medical Scheme, SAMWUMED and KeyHealth Medical Scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, its schemes have saved more than half a billion Rand and meaningfully provided economic opportunities for the ecosystem of home-based carers, nurses, social workers, providers of equipment for home-based care and palliatively trained doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is notable as these workers would otherwise be underfunded for the important work they do without Alignd\u2019s intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alignd is currently developing two new programmes, maternity and kidney care, and E Squared expects to consider additional capital to support both launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social investment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
E Squared\u2019s investment disbursements for 2025 have been made with a particular focus on transformation and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
92% of its investment value went to black beneficiaries, exceeding the minimum legislative requirement of 85%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a woman myself, this is the statistic I’m particularly proud of,\u201d said Mdluli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are outcomes of consistent, deliberate choices about how opportunities are sourced and how investments are structured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Download the E Squared Annual Impact Report 2025 here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"E Squared\u2019s Annual Impact Report 2025 highlights its impressive investment milestones and future goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":878493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2107429929335898310","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2228217871331945","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[26717,22959],"class_list":["post-878491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-annual-impact-report-2025","tag-e-squared"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878528,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878491\/revisions\/878528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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