Episode 52 is presented by The 2025 BigFive Summit Sponsors
We want to extend our thanks to the amazing group of companies that supported the 2025 BigFive Summit in Cape Town.
B5DS25 supporters include Premium Sponsor Absa Group, as well as Dialog, NSPYRE, Networds, AfriGIS, and Pragmattica Digital Consulting. Thanks also to Vendasta and Telkom for their support and to Realm Digital for its ticket giveaway.
Please stay tuned for announcements regarding future BigFive Digital initiatives, including the 2026 BigFive Summit in Cape Town.
Welcome to Episode 52 of the BIG5D Podcast, a production of BigFive Digital and the Africa B2B Tech Report. This is the first in a series of BIG5D Podcast episodes derived from on-stage conversations at the 2025 BigFive Summit, which took place 5-7 May at Innovation City Cape Town.
The first of these episodes features an interview I conducted on-stage with Zachariah George, the managing partner of Cape Town venture capital firm Launch Africa Ventures. Zach is a former Wall Street analyst who has lived in Cape Town for 15 years, after arriving to attend the World Cup and never leaving.
Launch Africa is an early-stage tech investor that is currently raising its second fund. The firm was recently the subject of a Harvard Business Review case study.
At the Summit, the ever-candid Zach was in rare form — offering a mix of advice, observation, admonition, and condemnation.
One key message is that South Africa still has work to do in developing the embrace of risk that has made Silicon Valley such an innovation factory.
Zach also had some choice words for African founders, who he suggested need a better understanding of the true role and purpose of venture funding (it’s not for everyone) and of what VCs like him need to see before they invest in an early-stage tech company.
As with most VCs, Zach is highly metrics-focused. Any founder who cannot demonstrate improving unit economics or an understanding of how to drive said improvement has better get that straight before asking Zach for money.
In this clip, Zach responds to a question about how an ordinary SME should think about their path to an attractive exit.
Clip 1: Exit Strategies for SMEs
Zach’s tough love message had a few choice targets. These include wealthy yet risk-averse South African families. Zach broadly characterized risk-averse African wealth as an impediment to growing the continent’s tech ecosystem.
Some of his sharpest barbs were reserved for early-stage founders who randomly seek funding from VCs on which they don’t bother to do even the most cursory research.
'“It is pure, 100%, unadulterated laziness,” Zach said of founders who approach VC funds without even reviewing the list of companies the fund has already invested in.
“They look at VCs as ATMs. If one isn’t working, go to the next one.”
Below Zach tears into another pet target — South African tech founders unwilling to expand outside of South Africa. Zach believes expansion is vital to achieving the scale required for venture investors to earn the returns they are expecting.
Zach does elevate an exception to this common founder failing. He praises Launch Africa portfolio company Peach Payments [the South African payments gateway founded in 2012] as a rare outlier. He singles out Peach founder Rahul Jain for “thinking big” as Peach expands across the continent. Peach recently entered West Africa via an acquisition (funded by its Series A) and is now on the cusp of operating in seven African markets.
Clip 2: SA Founders Must Expand to Other Markets
Episode 52 Time Stamps
Here are time markers for some of the highlights of our conversation with Zach. We encourage you to listen to the full podcast (or watch it on YouTube). However, if you prefer to skip around, these highlights offer a good sense of what Zach has to say about the state of tech investing in Africa.
Why Cape Town {3:29}
Capital Preservation vs. Capital Creation {4:04}
Rand vs. Dollar Billionaires {4:38}
Africa v. International Tech Investors {6:06}
Silicon Valley Has Over Glamorized Fundraising {14:06}
Venture Money Should Only Be Used for Three Things {14:50}
South African Tech Founders Must Expand {16:40}
The Kind of Businesses We Love {23:36}
Be Like OmniRetail {25:11}
Founders Please Do Your Homework {27:50}
Offer Synergies {29:38}
AI’s Impact on African Startups {31:36}
What Makes a Good Founder Team {41:58}
Rather watch our interview with Zach on YouTube? Here it is.
Recommended Reading
The following is a curation of recent content from around Africa, the Middle East, and the world related to B2B tech, digital marketing, small business, startup life, venture funding, M&A, and more.
Morocco Now Among Africa’s Top 10 Startup Ecosystems
Will Ethiopia Lead Africa’s AI-Powered Future?
Report Highlights Urgent Need for AI Skills in Africa
Botlhale Taps AI for Linguistic Inclusion in South Africa
Is There Gold in Africa’s E-Waste?
The BIG5D Podcast features in-depth conversations about tech and business in Africa with the leaders who are building, investing in, or taking to market the digital products and services designed to make the continent’s businesses more successful.
The BIG5D Podcast is hosted by me {Charles Laughlin}. I’m a tech journalist, newsletter publisher, and event moderator with decades of experience covering B2B technology around the world. I am also the Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of BigFive Digital, the producer of this podcast. My ambition for The Big5D Podcast is simple, I want this to be the biggest and best podcast about tech in Africa.
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