Hlayisani Capital launched Hlayisani Venture Fund II (HVF II) with R500 million committed and a final close targeted for June 2026. The fund is anchored by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), South Africa's largest state asset manager, and the SA SME Fund, with additional commitments from family offices and private investors. The firm says it’s in discussions with further institutional backers.

This is the second venture vehicle from a firm that now manages over R1 billion across three funds. Hlayisani was formed in 2016 when Angelhub Ventures, one of Africa's earliest angel investment groups backed by former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan and Kevin Harris, merged with Dzana Investments, the family office of Dr Reuel Khoza, former Nedbank chairman and current PIC chairperson.

That last detail matters. The PIC anchoring a fund whose co-founder now chairs the PIC board is worth noting. It doesn't invalidate the investment, but it's the kind of relationship that should be disclosed and understood in context.

HVF II is focused on Series A opportunities in companies that have already found product-market fit and are ready to scale. The sectors are AI, fintech, healthtech, edtech, and digital infrastructure. Cheque sizes are likely in the R50 million to R100 million range, based on the fund's stated focus and the broader Series A landscape in South Africa.

Hlayisani's earlier funds backed companies that have since grown well beyond South Africa. Snapplify, the edtech platform, expanded into Kenya, the UK, the Netherlands, and the US, and won a UNESCO literacy prize in 2023. Wyzetalk built an employee communications platform serving large workforces across multiple countries. GoMetro raised $11.5 million in a Series A for its transport logistics technology. The portfolio also includes LEAP, Opennetworks, and the d6 group in education technology.

HVF II is already deploying. Tractor Outdoor Media is building digital infrastructure in the out-of-home advertising space. Spatialedge, a Stellenbosch-based enterprise AI firm that secured R60 million from the Hlayisani Growth Fund in 2024, is now also backed through the new fund. Cogitait AI is focused on operational intelligence and automation. The early bets lean toward companies applying AI and data to established industries rather than building consumer-facing apps.

The overall track record is solid if unspectacular in exit terms. There are no headline exits on the scale of, say, HAVAIC's RapidDeploy sale to Motorola Solutions. But the portfolio companies have generally grown, expanded internationally, and raised follow-on capital, which is what a growth-stage VC is supposed to deliver.

The more interesting story sits underneath the fund announcement. As we covered in our analysis of South Africa reclaiming the top spot in African VC funding, SA's venture ecosystem is maturing in ways that go beyond deal volume. Institutional capital is entering the asset class. The PIC backing a venture fund is significant not because of the dollar amount, but because it signals that South Africa's largest pools of institutional money are starting to treat VC as a legitimate allocation rather than a fringe bet.

This echoes the pattern we saw with HAVAIC Fund 3, where Sanlam Multi-Manager and E Squared Investments (linked to Allan Gray) made their first VC commitments. Two separate funds, backed by two different sets of institutional investors, both raised in the same period. Are we seeing a trend?

The gap that both funds are targeting is also the same: Series A. South Africa has become better at seeding startups, but the bridge between seed and growth remains thin. Founders who find product-market fit still struggle to raise the R50 million to R100 million they need to scale. HVF II is explicitly positioned to fill that gap.

The fund is still raising toward final close in June 2026, and the composition of additional institutional backers will say a lot about how broad the appetite for SA venture capital has become. The PIC relationship with Dr Khoza warrants transparency as the fund deploys, and the portfolio choices over the next 12 months will reveal whether Hlayisani's AI and digital infrastructure thesis translates into companies that can compete regionally and globally.

For founders raising Series A in South Africa right now, the message is clear: there is more local capital available than there was a year ago, and the institutions writing the cheques are getting bigger.

This news first featured in our March ‘26 post on a venture bringing same-day delivery to any SA stores. 

Get fresh insights on the SA VC scene. See the deal flow in HAVAIC Fund 3. And see why Araxi acquired Pay@ for R1bn.