We focus on utilising our skills, knowledge and insight to develop the African venture capital ecosystem and help world-class entrepreneurs build and scale their businesses, while generating superior returns for our investors.
Fireball Capital is a subsidiary of Ke Nako Capital (Pty) Ltd and has a wealth of experience in successfully deploying capital on behalf of its institutional clients for well over 15 years.
Our competitive advantage and unique investment strategy puts us a step ahead of the rest.
Financial capital in the venture capital ecosystem
A network of local and global investors
Support for entrepreneurs to scale to an international level
We focus on utilising our skills, knowledge and insight to develop the African venture capital ecosystem and help world-class entrepreneurs build and scale their businesses, while generating superior returns for our investors.
We have a deep understanding of the investable universe and the markets in which we invest. This gives us the upper hand when sourcing relationships with existing South African venture capital teams as well as gaining access to the best co-investments and direct investment opportunities.
Fireball Capital partners with the best-of-breed local venture capital managers to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses. We also bridge the gap between the local venture ecosystem and top tier international investors to help home-bred world-class businesses to scale globally.
In compliance with international best practices, we outsource some of our functions to independent third parties, providing an additional level of governance. Fireball also offers its investors a unique level of transparency.
Very few true independent early-stage venture capital fund managers exist – few can raise meaningful amounts of investable capital, and the unique combination of experience and skill needed to deploy and manage an early-stage technology venture portfolio in this challenging environment is rare.
Our relationship with Ke Nako Capital gives us access to a network of highly talented managers and team members that align with our values.
Chief Executive Officer / Head of Co-investments
Paula is the CEO at Fireball Capital and manages the co-investment and direct investment programme. She is responsible for sourcing, deal negotiation, deal execution and general investment management. Prior to her current role, her career spanned investment banking, development finance and private equity. She previously worked for a grant funding programme designed to promote technology development in South Africa and was instrumental in the establishment of an on-balance sheet venture capital fund. She is a CFA charter holder who also holds qualifications in engineering; maths & applied maths; financial economics and investment management.
Head of Investments
Justin is a Chartered Accountant, having worked within the financial services division of PwC in Cape Town, New York, and Bermuda, focusing on hedge funds, bio tech funds and insurance. One of his core skills have been building proprietary tech solutions, Software as a Service (SAAS), to turn large volumes of data in information for the portfolio managers to corroborate and make informed decisions. Think of it as applying science to a qualitative process. His role within the team will be manager selection and incubation, portfolio modelling and critically analyzing the tech stacks within the portfolio companies.
Chief Financial Officer / Head of Compliance
Ryan has over 20 years of corporate and fund accounting and regulatory compliance experience. He is responsible for all statutory financial reports and audits, regulatory compliance with the various regulators and has oversight for all legal structuring vehicles. Ryan and his team also provide a value-added services platform to our venture managers and to the venture entrepreneurs.
Head of Fund Admin & Operations
Geraldine is responsible for the accurate and complete resolution of the entire fund accounting process. She also oversees and reviews the Annual Financial Statement process and is responsible for the compilation of the ESG report.
Investment Professional, Risk and ESG Manager
Mmitji is responsible for fund valuations and reporting. He is also responsible for supporting the investment team through initial fund screening, maintaining internal risk management systems including ESG framework Monitors mandate compliance and portfolios oversight.
Investment Support
Lindiwe is responsible for supporting the various business units within the firm all the way from front to back office.
Investment Advisor & Investment Committee Member
Carlo has been a director of Ke Nako Capital since its inception in 2007, is the lead portfolio manager and has over 16 years’ experience in direct commercial property, mezzanine debt, corporate finance, traditional and alternative investment management. Currently he serves on and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of 5 South African private equity funds as well as a director on 5 PE portfolio company boards. Carlo is also a director on several SA VC companies covering Financial Technology and Agricultural Technology.
Investment Advisor & Chairman of the Investment Committee
Pierre is a lead portfolio manager for a global venture capital fund of fund. He has been investing in venture capital through his relationship with a global family office for over 3 decades. He brings experience and a global venture capital network that will be instrumental in scaling and internationalising South African tech enabled businesses.
Does your early stage (Pre Series A / Series A / Series B) tech venture need funding?
Do you need institutional funding for your venture portfolio?
Interested in investing in a risk adjusted, diversified portfolio of high growth, tech enabled businesses?
© 2022 Fireball All Rights Reserved Reg No 2019/121231/07
Juristic representative of Ke Nako Capital (Pty) Ltd FSP 33507, an authorised financial services provider
