South Africa’s Secha Capital has reached the second close of its growth-focused vehicle, Secha Capital Impact Fund II, as it works toward a final target of R650 million (approximately US$40 million). The fund, which announced its first close of R300 million in September 2023, has attracted new investor E Squared Investments alongside returning backers RMB Ventures, SA SME Fund, and 27four Investment Managers. Fund II is already 40% deployed across eight portfolio companies operating in sectors such as electronics manufacturing, energy technology, controlled-environment farming, and consumer goods. The firm’s distinctive operator-investor model embeds skilled professionals directly within portfolio companies to drive execution alongside founders, and it has now evolved to include a Chief Executive Operator-Investor career track. A final close is targeted for July 2026.
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Key Overview
- Fund: Secha Capital Impact Fund II
- Target Size: R650 million (~US$40 million)
- First Close: R300 million (~US$18 million) in September 2023
- Second Close: Reached April 2026 (amount undisclosed)
- Final Close Target: July 2026
- New Investor: E Squared Investments (founded by Allan Gray)
- Returning Backers: RMB Ventures, SA SME Fund, 27four Investment Managers
- Deployment: 40% invested across eight companies
- Portfolio Companies Include: Barracuda, Plentify, Cultura Fresh, FarmTrace, iG3N, AgrigateOne, LHC Beauty
- Sectors: Agriculture, manufacturing, energy, consumer goods
- Jobs Created: Over 1,000 sustainable positions across the portfolio
- Model: Operator-Investor (OI) with new CEOI track
- Founded: 2017 by Nombuso Nkambule, Brendan Mullen, and Rushil Vallabh
A Growth Fund Built on Execution, Not Just Capital
Secha Capital, the Johannesburg-based growth capital firm, has reached a significant fundraising milestone with the second close of its impact-focused vehicle, Secha Capital Impact Fund II. The fund is targeting a final close of R650 million, or approximately US$40 million, by July 2026, and the latest close brings additional commitments from both new and existing institutional investors.
The announcement underscores growing confidence in Secha’s thesis that growth-stage businesses in South Africa’s core economic sectors need more than money to scale. They need people. Unlike conventional venture capital or private equity firms that provide funding and board-level advice, Secha deploys skilled professionals directly into the businesses it backs to work alongside founders on sales, operations, and strategy. This approach, which the firm calls its operator-investor model, is designed to address one of the most persistent barriers to scaling businesses in emerging markets: the shortage of experienced management talent.
The second close arrives at a time when Africa’s venture capital landscape is undergoing a pronounced shift. According to the Partech Africa Tech Venture Capital Report released in early 2026, African tech startups raised a combined US$4.1 billion in equity and debt financing in 2025, representing a 25% increase year-on-year and the strongest funding year since 2022. Yet within that recovery, investor appetite is moving beyond purely digital models toward businesses that address structural gaps in energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and supply chains — precisely the sectors that Secha targets.
E Squared Investments Joins the Investor Base
The headline addition to Fund II’s investor roster is E Squared Investments, a prominent South African impact investor established by the late Allan Gray in 2007. Gray, best known as the founder of the investment company bearing his name — one of the largest private asset managers globally — created E Squared as a vehicle to channel capital toward responsible entrepreneurship and economic inclusion.
E Squared has become a significant player in South Africa’s impact investing ecosystem. The organisation deployed R369.7 million across the venture lifecycle in 2024 alone and has invested more than R1 billion into 177 ventures since inception, collectively creating, supporting, or sustaining over 32,000 jobs. Unlike many venture capital firms that must answer to shareholders with shorter-term return horizons, E Squared benefits from a patient capital structure funded in part by dividends from Allan Gray, allowing it to adopt a longer-term investment strategy that gives entrepreneurs more room to grow.
Pyi Maung, Chief Investment Officer at E Squared, described the decision to back Secha as a natural fit, noting that the firm’s model provides the practical executive support needed to build resilient, job-creating businesses in the real economy. The partnership reflects E Squared’s broader strategy of co-investing alongside specialist fund managers, having recently also backed HAVAÍC’s US$50 million African Innovation Fund 3.
Returning investors in Fund II include RMB Ventures, a subsidiary of FirstRand Limited, one of Africa’s largest financial services groups by market capitalisation; 27four Investment Managers; and the SA SME Fund. Their continued support signals institutional confidence in Secha’s model as it enters a more mature deployment phase. At the fund’s first close in September 2023, RMB Ventures described Secha’s thesis-driven growth-stage strategy as a win for the entire Southern African PE and VC ecosystem.
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Inside the Portfolio: Eight Companies Across South Africa’s Real Economy
Fund II is already 40% deployed across eight companies, and the portfolio provides a clear window into Secha’s investment philosophy. Rather than pursuing the fintech-heavy strategies that have dominated African venture capital in recent years, the fund targets businesses providing essential goods and services across the real economy.
The portfolio’s flagship names reflect this approach. Plentify, an energy technology company, uses hardware and software to link household appliances to cheaper and cleaner power sources. The company recently closed its Series A round, bringing its total funding to nearly US$15 million, with Secha serving as lead investor. By connecting appliances such as water heaters, batteries, and solar inverters, Plentify enables households to draw power when it is cheapest and cleanest — a critical proposition in a country that has been grappling with energy infrastructure challenges.
Cultura Fresh, a controlled-environment farming company, has grown under Secha’s backing to become the largest lettuce producer in Southern Africa, leveraging global hydroponics innovation adapted to local conditions. The company uses approximately 90% less water than conventional farming, eliminates the need for inorganic pesticides, and delivers year-round consistency.
Barracuda Holdings, an electronics manufacturing services company that specialises in high-mix circuit board assemblies, became a landmark deal for Secha in late 2025. The investment marked the debut of Secha’s Chief Executive Operator-Investor model, through which Aengus Stanley of co-investor Shade Tree Capital was installed as CEO alongside a Secha team member embedded in the management structure. Barracuda serves customers across telematics, industrial automation, energy, defence, and aerospace.
The remaining portfolio companies include iG3N, which manufactures lithium battery storage solutions; FarmTrace, which provides farm management software; AgrigateOne, a perishable goods supply chain platform; and LHC Beauty, a consumer brand. Collectively, these businesses have created over 1,000 sustainable jobs and are working to digitise traditional supply chains while expanding local production capacity.
The Operator-Investor Model: A Talent-First Approach
Secha’s founding thesis rests on a straightforward observation: in South Africa and across emerging markets more broadly, the gap between available capital and available management talent is often the binding constraint on business growth. While money can be raised, finding experienced operators who can execute on sales strategies, streamline supply chains, and professionalise operations is far more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The firm, launched in 2017 by Nombuso Nkambule, Brendan Mullen, and Rushil Vallabh, addresses this by embedding young, high-powered professionals directly within its portfolio companies. These operator-investors work side-by-side with founders on day-to-day execution rather than offering guidance from a distance. The model has its roots in the consulting backgrounds of the founders — Mullen and Vallabh are both former Bain & Company consultants — and draws on the principle that strategy without execution is worthless.
Rushil Vallabh, co-founder of Secha Capital, has described the philosophy in direct terms: the firm provides execution rather than merely capital and advice, turning strategy into results by embedding the right operators next to founders.
Fund II has seen the model evolve further with the introduction of the Chief Executive Operator-Investor track, or CEOI. This pathway is designed to attract elite professionals looking to transition from corporate careers into C-suite leadership roles within portfolio companies. The CEOI model gives these individuals meaningful equity stakes and operational responsibility, creating a stronger alignment of incentives between the investor, the operator, and the founding team.
The Barracuda investment is the clearest demonstration of this approach in practice. Rather than simply providing capital and monitoring from a board seat, Secha helped install a new CEO with operational ownership and placed one of its own team members within the management structure to support the transition. This hands-on approach, which Mullen has termed “execution capital,” is designed to de-risk the investment for institutional investors while simultaneously accelerating portfolio company growth.
Addressing South Africa’s SME Funding and Talent Gap
Secha’s model is particularly relevant to the current state of South Africa’s small business landscape. According to the Small Business Growth Index, only 38% of businesses surveyed in 2025 believed they could survive for more than a year under cost pressures without external support. Over 70% expected to require additional financing within six months, and at least 40% were relying primarily on self-funding.
These pressures exist within a broader continental context. Africa faces a US$331 billion SME funding gap, according to research highlighted by CNBC Africa, with SMEs accounting for up to 50% of GDP and 80% of employment across the continent. The challenge is not only about getting capital to these businesses, but ensuring that the capital is accompanied by the operational expertise needed to deploy it effectively.
Secha’s focus on sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and energy also reflects a wider trend in the African investment landscape. While fintech captured 25% of equity funding across the continent in 2025, emerging data from early 2026 indicates that logistics, energy, and manufacturing are increasingly attracting capital as investors recognise the need to fund businesses that address structural infrastructure deficits rather than relying exclusively on digital-first models.
For South Africa specifically, the impact investing sector has been gaining momentum. The government’s successful issuance of an R11.8 billion Infrastructure and Development Finance Bond in late 2025 — which was 2.2 times oversubscribed — signalled strong appetite for investments that combine financial returns with tangible development outcomes. Secha’s dual mandate of generating financial returns while creating measurable social impact, particularly through job creation and supply chain development, positions it within this growing wave.
The Road to Final Close
With the second close now completed and a final close targeted for July 2026, Secha Capital is entering the second phase of Fund II’s deployment. The firm’s first fund demonstrated that its combination of equity investment and embedded human capital is a replicable model for financial and social returns, particularly in women-founded businesses.
The addition of E Squared to the investor base adds both capital and strategic credibility, given E Squared’s track record and its connections to the broader Allan Gray ecosystem. For the existing portfolio companies, the continued fundraising momentum means more resources for operational support, expansion, and talent deployment.
The primary challenge ahead for Secha will be maintaining the quality of its operator-investor model as it scales across a larger number of portfolio companies. Embedding professionals within businesses is inherently resource-intensive, and the effectiveness of the approach depends on the calibre of operators the firm can attract and retain. The introduction of the CEOI track suggests the firm is already thinking about this constraint, creating a structured career pathway designed to draw high-performing corporate professionals into the portfolio.
Brendan Mullen, co-founder of Secha Capital, has framed the firm’s mission in terms that extend beyond individual portfolio returns. By investing in the businesses people rely on every day and making those companies run better and grow faster, Secha aims to deliver on what he describes as a dual mandate of strong financial returns and systemic social impact. Whether the model can scale to meet the ambition remains to be seen, but the second close of Fund II suggests that institutional investors are increasingly betting that it can.
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