The Africa B2B Tech Report
Issue No. 93. Africa-Middle East B2B tech news & insights for 4 July 2025.
The Africa B2B Tech Report is a regular curation of news and insights on the development of B2B technology in Africa and the Middle East. We cover the ecosystem of partners, builders, and developers that make emerging tech work for African businesses.
The Report is written by Charles Laughlin, Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief for BigFive Digital. Charles is an independent media entrepreneur, journalist, podcaster, and conference producer.
Knife Capital Backs Two SA Startups
Cape Town venture firm Knife Capital has made public new Series A investments in two South African startups via its KNF II fund.
Knife did not disclose the size of either investment. We put out some feelers to try and get more specifics on the size of these investments, but we got nothing back before we decided to hit “send” on this newsletter.
The first company, Sticitt, is a fintech founded in 2018 and based in Cape Town. Sticitt serves the education market by helping schools adopt cashless payments.
Sticitt is led by founder Theo Kitshoff. The company also has a stated mission to help students develop good financial habits. It backs this up with its Sticitt Money platform, which gamifies the youth banking experience.
The second company is Optique. This is a string of 19 optical retail eye-care locations (founded in 2017) that are operated as franchises. This may not immediately come across as the kind of business that would attract capital from a tech-focused investor.
However, Knife describes Optique as on a mission “to make eye care more accessible and affordable through a digitally enabled model.”
Founder Leon van Vuuren adds that “Optique has always been about redefining eye care accessibility through an innovative business model that blends technology, affordability, and convenience.”
So what does Knife see in these two companies? Knife describes its investment focus as targeting “innovation-driven ventures with proven traction.”
So while Knife is not explicitly tech-focused, the words “tech” and “innovation” have arguably merged into a single concept in recent decades. Yet traction seems to be the real common denominator in Knife’s investments.
Both companies have been active for a few years now. And both have demonstrated a degree of success since their founding.
Optique has expanded to 19 locations and Sticitt serves 841 schools and supports more than 75,700 users. To date, the company has processed R6.3 billion (about US$359.8 million) in transactions.
Here is how Knife Capital Partner and Co-founder Keet van Zyl explained these two investments.
“Our focus has always been backing entrepreneurs who execute with purpose and clarity,” van Zyl said.
“Both Sticitt and Optique are solving real-world problems in bold ways, whether it's digitising school payments or delivering innovative, digitally-enabled vision solutions. These investments reflect our belief in businesses that blend innovation, traction, and tenacity.”
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Vula, Pangea Partner to Spur SME Growth in Ghana
Pangea Global Ventures, a firm that “scouts high-performing agribusinesses and provides business advisory services to accelerate their investment readiness” has partnered with Vula, an AI-driven platform that helps SMEs raise capital.
The two companies are looking to improve access to funding for businesses in Ghana.
Vula might be familiar to many in the BigFive Digital community. Vula co-founder Nic Rawhani was a speaker at the 2024 BigFive Summit in Cape Town, as well as a guest on the BIG5D Podcast.
Together the two firms are launching a 3-month pilot program that combines Pangea’s database of Ghanaian businesses with Vula’s AI matching technology.
The ultimate aim of the pilot is “to create a next-generation funding marketplace.”
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Each issue of The Report features a chart or graphic (or two) that was shared with us, or that we found online, that we believe is relevant to the continent’s B2B tech ecosystem.
SA’s Astonishingly High Clickthrough Rates
This week’s Date Dump comes courtesy of our friend Michelle Geere, the founder of AdBot, which helps businesses automate digital marketing with AI.
According to Michelle, the global average clickthrough rate is 3.17%. Meanwhile, in South Africa, it is a whopping 9.1%. The chart shows clickthrough rates among various business categories in South Africa.
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New from BIG5D TV
Amanda Louw-Bester of Pragmattica Digital Consulting provided a compelling marketing masterclass on growing and scaling a small business at the 2025 BigFive Summit in Cape Town. Enjoy Amanda’s full talk on YouTube (please subscribe).
New from the BIG5D Podcast
One of the most compelling panels at the 2025 BigFive Summit featured an accelerator, a venture capitalist, and an early-stage founder sharing what startups need beyond VC money. It was so good we turned it into a BIG5D Podcast episode.
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