IN SHORT: Johannesburg-based Secha Capital, a black, female-founded growth equity fund manager, has reached the second close of its $40 million Fund II with E Squared Investments, the impact fund founded by Allan Gray’s family office, joining existing backers RMB Ventures, the SA SME Fund and 27four Investment Managers. The fund is already 40% deployed across eight portfolio companies in agriculture, manufacturing, energy and consumer goods, and has created over 1,000 jobs. A final close targeting R650 million ($40 million) is set for July 2026.
Secha Capital’s second close on Fund II, backed by one of South Africa’s most respected impact investors, is a milestone for a fund manager that has built the most distinctive and arguably most needed investment model in the country’s PE and venture ecosystem: one that solves not just the capital gap for growing SMEs but the operational execution gap that capital alone cannot fix.
The fund, Secha Capital Impact Fund II, was launched with a first close of R300 million in September 2023. The second close brings additional institutional capital at a moment when South Africa’s real economy, the agriculture, manufacturing, energy and consumer goods sectors that employ the majority of the country’s workforce, needs patient, hands-on capital more than at any time in recent memory.
- Secha’s distinguishing feature is its Operator-Investor model. Rather than deploying capital and expecting portfolio companies to figure out execution, Secha embeds a skilled professional directly into each investee business for approximately one year. That operator works side-by-side with the founders on sales processes, operations, strategy and management systems, the practical execution layer that determines whether a growth-stage company with good fundamentals actually scales or stalls. The model has now evolved to include a Chief Executive Operator-Investor track, providing an explicit career pathway for experienced corporate professionals to transition into C-suite leadership roles within portfolio companies.
- Fund II’s eight portfolio companies span the sectors that form the backbone of South Africa’s real economy: Barracuda (electronics manufacturing), Plentify (energy technology), Cultura Fresh (controlled-environment farming), FarmTrace (farm management software), iG3N (energy storage solutions), AgrigateOne (perishable goods supply chain) and LHC Beauty (consumer brand). Each represents a business at an inflection point: proven product, identifiable market, but needing capital and operational support to cross the scaling threshold.
- The portfolio has created over 1,000 sustainable jobs to date. In a South African context where unemployment exceeds 30% and youth unemployment approaches 60%, the job creation performance of growth equity invested into South Africa’s real economy is one of the most direct development impacts any institutional investment can deliver. Secha’s founding team, led by Nombuso Nkambule, Brendan Mullen and Rushil Vallabh, has been explicit that financial returns and social impact are not trade-offs but complements in their model.
- E Squared Investments, founded by the Allan Gray family, is one of South Africa’s most credible impact investors. Its decision to back Fund II is a signal to the broader institutional LP community that Secha’s model is not a niche experiment but a scalable, financially validated approach to South African growth equity. RMB Ventures, the SA SME Fund and 27four Investment Managers had already established that institutional credibility at the first close; E Squared deepens it.
- The $40 million final close target for July 2026 sits within Africa’s $331 billion SME funding gap, a figure that makes any single fund’s contribution seem small. But Secha’s thesis is not that it will fill the gap alone. It is that the operator-investor model, proven at this scale, is a replicable template that other fund managers can adopt and that LPs can back with confidence. The model’s proof of concept is what Fund II is building.
Brendan Mullen, Secha co-founder: “We invest in the businesses people rely on every day, both today and in the future. By making these companies run better and grow faster, we deliver on a dual mandate of strong financial returns and systemic social impact.”
The Bigger Picture: South Africa has a shortage of capital at the growth stage and an even more acute shortage of operational expertise. Most capital goes to either very early-stage startups or mature listed companies. The growth-stage businesses in the middle, employing thousands of people across agriculture, manufacturing and logistics, get the least attention and the least support. Secha has identified this gap and built a model specifically designed to address it. The second close and E Squared’s entry validate that the market will fund this approach. The July final close will determine how large this proof of concept becomes.
Source: Disrupt Africa / Tech In Africa / Serrari Group, April 28-30, 2026
