Knife Capital backs SA fintech and healthtech disruptors, adding to spacetech investment

The Money Show's Stephen Grootes is joined by Keet van Zyl, co-founder and partner at Knife Capital.

Knife Capital has marked 15 years of investing by announcing new Series A investments into South African startups Sticitt and Optique.

The venture capital firm is already invested in spacetech outfit Simera Sense, one of five local companies that actually provided advanced satellite technologies for Elon Musk's recent SpaceX launch, Transporter-14.

Knife Capital describes itself as a pan-African company that accelerates the international expansion of innovation-driven businesses by 'leveraging knowledge, networks, and funding'. 

Co-founder Keet van Zyl says their investment in fintech startup Sticitt is their latest in what he terms South Africa's school ecosystem.

"It transforms the way schools and kids and parents manage money, but more importantly it's about inclusion and education... basically covering the whole value of money concept; how to invest, how to save, how to budget and how to spend taught in a gamified way."

Keet van Zyl, Co-founder - Knife Capital

It's appropriate to teach children good financial habits while they're spending your hard earned cash, he says with a chuckle.

Redefining optometry is the focus of Optique, van Zyl says.

The idea is that eyecare should be digitally-enabled, affordable, accessible, and easy to understand. 

"Optique offer an eye test at R99. They already have 19 stores and our funding is just rolling them out to more people who really need it."

Keet van Zyl, Co-founder - Knife Capital

"It's a nice tangible investment which combines technology and innovation, and some real-world challenges which we also love to solve."

Keet van Zyl, Co-founder - Knife Capital

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