Cape Town startups are invited to apply to the #PitchVinny event organised by Silicon Cape, allowing them to pitch to angel investor Vinny Lingham for the chance to win ZAR50,000 (US$4,000) in funding.
Interested startups should apply before August 10 for the event, which will take place at Workshop 17 at the V&A Waterfront on August 17.
Lingham, aside from co-founding Silicon Cape, is one of South Africa’s best known technology entrepreneurs and investors, having co-founded Clicks2Customers, TrafficSynergy, Yola and Gyft. Yola went on to raise US$25 million in funding from Johann Rupert’s Reinet Fund, while he recently sold Gyft to First Data Corporation for more than US$50 million.
He is an increasingly active angel investor, having made early investments in the likes of Quirk (since acquired) and SkyRove. Lingham was most recently seen doing his thing on television during Dragons’ Den SA, putting money into Ekaya, SA Florist and eShip.
Lingham told Disrupt Africa in April he has invested ZAR5 million (US$415,000) of his own funds into South African startups thus far, but says he hopes the returns drastically exceed that initial investment.
“I’m focusing on the startups that can really become billion dollar businesses. If I’m going to take a risk, I might as well bet on high upside companies, even if they have high risk,” he said.
“I travel back and forth to South Africa about twice a year to reconnect and I still have family and close friends there. I have over a dozen investments in South African companies, so I like to keep up with what’s going on.”
