By lunch-time every day, the US invests in venture capital what South Africa does in a year.
Last year, the US invested $82bn in venture capital into new businesses; the total in South Africa was $70m.
Ketso Gordhan, the CEO of the SA SME Fund, which was launched earlier today by President Cyril Ramaphosa, wants to change the picture.
The R1.4bn fund is jointly capitalised by the Public Investment Corporation and 50 companies. The plan is to use it to generate a venture capital movement, the absence of which hobbles many entrepreneurs with big ideas but small money.
Conceptualised at the end of 2015 when South Africa faced an investment rating downgrade (as it does this week), Gordhan and his six-person team have spent the past six months finding largely black-owned, future-facing businesses in the technology and biotechnology sectors to invest in.
The SA-SME fund is a fund-of-funds in that
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