InVenFin Media Launch
Moneyweb
23 July 2008
Geoff Candy

VENFIN JOINS THE VENTURE CAPITAL RACE
It plans to bring South African inventions to the world.

Investment holding firm Venfin, has launched

a new venture capital fund called Invenfin, to help develop South African inventions.

The group, which calls itself an “early-stage, intellectual property venture capital fund”, has been given R50m as seed capital by Venfin and will look to help bring South African inventions to the world market.

According to Invenfin CEO, Brett Commaille, there is no project too small nor any idea too big, for the fund, but adds, “it has to be protectable one way or another, so that the time and money invested into the project is not wasted when, after a few months, everyone else can produce the same thing and, it has to be replicable on the world stage.”

Asked why Venfin decided to create the fund, CEO Jannie Durand explained that size has become a problem for Venfin: “Many investments are now passed over because they are too small to make it worthwhile for the group to look at them and, as a result, many good businesses are overlooked. We thought it better to set up a new, smaller business, with such ideas and business opportunities as its main focus so that they get the proper attention.”

The fund has been running for six months and has not yet made any investments but, is seriously looking at four potential ideas.

All ideas that make it through the first hurdle then get looked at by the fund’s board of directors that includes some heavy hitters including: Joe Kieser who is the deputy chairman, Don MacRobert former Nissan South Africa CEO, John Newbury and Kees Scilperoort.

According to Kieser, many good inventions are still born because of a lack of strategic direction, “The fund will help marry the inspired thinking that abounds in the country with the business skills needed to bring it to market.Rich Text AreaToolbarBold (Ctrl / Alt + Shift + B)Italic (Ctrl / Alt + Shift + I)Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D)Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U)Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O)Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q)Align Left (Alt + Shift + L)Align Center (Alt + Shift + C)Align Right (Alt + Shift + R)Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A)Unlink (Alt + Shift + S)Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T)Toggle spellchecker (Alt + Shift + N)▼
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InVenFin Media Launch
Moneyweb
23 July 2008
Geoff Candy
VENFIN JOINS THE VENTURE CAPITAL RACE
It plans to bring South African inventions to the world.
Investment holding firm Venfin, has launched a new venture capital fund called Invenfin, to help develop South African inventions.
The group, which calls itself an “early-stage, intellectual property venture capital fund”, has been given R50m as seed capital by Venfin and will look to help bring South African inventions to the world market.
According to Invenfin CEO, Brett Commaille, there is no project too small nor any idea too big, for the fund, but adds, “it has to be protectable one way or another, so that the time and money invested into the project is not wasted when, after a few months, everyone else can produce the same thing and, it has to be replicable on the world stage.”
Asked why Venfin decided to create the fund, CEO Jannie Durand explained that size has become a problem for Venfin: “Many investments are now passed over because they are too small to make it worthwhile for the group to look at them and, as a result, many good businesses are overlooked. We thought it better to set up a new, smaller business, with such ideas and business opportunities as its main focus so that they get the proper attention.”
The fund has been running for six months and has not yet made any investments but, is seriously looking at four potential ideas.
All ideas that make it through the first hurdle then get looked at by the fund’s board of directors that includes some heavy hitters including: Joe Kieser who is the deputy chairman, Don MacRobert former Nissan South Africa CEO, John Newbury and Kees Scilperoort.
According to Kieser, many good inventions are still born because of a lack of strategic direction, “The fund will help marry the inspired thinking that abounds online casino in the country with the business skills needed to bring it to market.
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