Photograph — pulseng.com

Just a few days into 2016, Cape Town-based consumer focused internet platform, Silvertree Internet Holdings, has decided to invest in focused and potentially talented tech startups in Africa. Their decision came as a result of the firm’s outstanding growth record from last year.

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Silvertree Internet Holdings operates an owner-operator model, focusing on scaling tech and commerce companies across small, fast growing niches. In 2015, they invested $5m [R75M] in company acquisitions and business building and accelerated growth of their brands and new businesses to >10M USD in revenue. Through the company’s investment arm, Silvertree Capital, 2016 will see the executive team that includes Koser, Peter Allerstorfer, Paul Cook & Andrew Whale, invest an additional $10m [R158M] into African entrepreneurs and e-commerce enterprises.

According to the South African company, Silvertree Internet Holdings had 330 percent per annum growth in 2015, this is the first time it is experiencing such growth since it began operations in 2013. This was made possible through its e-commerce platforms – Click n Compare, Faithful to Nature, Cyber Cellar, HealthCart and PriceCheck. Through activity on these platforms, Silvertree Internet Holdings recorded a 50 percent increase from 2014 by reaching 25 million unique consumers in Africa in 2015.

The investment arm of the company, Silvertree Capital, is particularly interested in investing in tech startups beginning from South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. This year it will invest in new talented online companies to join its fast expanding owner-operator portfolio.  

Manuel Koser, SIH Founder and MD says: “Our meteoric growth in 2015 has been driven by execution-focused delivery across all of our portfolio companies, as well as a number of company acquisitions that are already delivering positive returns. Our job now is to build on this momentum to maintain our aggressive growth trajectory and cement our dominance in the African e-commerce and price comparison markets.”

Silvertree understands the value and potential of emerging markets as they search for top tier talent to invest in and work with. The Managing Director of Silvertree, Peter Allerstorfer, says the company is committed to building businesses although they are not an incubator.  

“We are entrepreneurs who invest in like-minded entrepreneurs. Our search for young, dynamic, hungry talent who want to scale faster and outpace their competitors, will be a key focus for us in 2016,” he said.

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