Silvertree Internet Holdings adds Freddy Caspers to its team

godfred akoto

August 9, 2017 9:12 AM

The company has dispensed over $15 million dollars in investment since its inception in 2014

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South African venture capital firm Silvertree Internet Holdings has announced a plan to invest $10million over the next 12 months into new ventures in Africa.

The firm has been at the forefront of the incubation boom on the continent and has been involved with companies like carzar.co.za and cook.za since its inception in 2014.In that period the company has channeled over $15 million into African consumer-focused technology companies.

In an interview with Business Insider SSA, the company’s co- founder Manuel Koser says the current behaviour of consumers and the potential in the region is what has given the company the incentive to increase its investments.

“The Current performance of all our investments and the thesis that consumers are moving from offline to online. In SSA e-commerce as a percentage of retail is still around 1% vs. >10% in the developed world. More and more top talent are becoming entrepreneurs and looking for partners to scale their businesses”.

The company's resolve to increase its investments comes at a time when several African economies are facing a downturn but Mr.Koser says Silvertree is not deterred in its plan to grow ventures into profitabiity.

“No, we are pushing all business for profitability 2-3 years after investing and focus on capital efficiency and are evergreen capital, which means we don't want to sell any companies.”

In anticipation of this growth,Silvertree has appointed Freddy Caspers, a former executive at London based Reckitt Benckiser (RB) as its non-executive board chairman. Mr.Caspers is credited with the success of the RB in emerging markets and Africa and is hopeful of replicating the same in his new role.

“I have great ambitions for Silvertree: to build it into the most successful internet technology company across Africa. Similarly to my approach at RB, exceptional people with a performance driven culture and executional excellence will be key to our value creation to transform economic growth across the region.

godfred akoto