Knife Capital<\/a> is a pan-African venture capital firm that accelerates the international expansion of innovation-driven businesses by leveraging knowledge, networks, and funding.\u00a0<\/p>\nWith offices in Cape Town, London, and Jersey, Knife Capital invests through KNF I, KNF II, and Knife Fund III, and to mark its 15th birthday it has announced investments in two South African startups via KNF II.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2018, Sticitt is a fintech startup transforming the way South African schools manage money. By streamlining all school-related transactions into a simple, digital platform, Sticitt, which was first backed by Knife via its Grindstone accelerator and Grindstone Ventures, currently serves 841 schools and supports over 75,700 users.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnife, with their strong track record of supporting the growth of their portfolio companies, is the perfect shareholder to help Sticitt through the next phase of the business\u2019 growth journey,\u201d said Theo Kitshoff, CEO and founder of Sticitt. \u201cTheir experience and extensive networks locally and abroad will play a vital role in helping Sticitt achieve significance and sustainability in supporting schools to operate more sustainably, whilst equipping future generations with healthy financial habits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Optique, meanwhile, was founded in 2017, and is redefining optometry with a simple idea \u2013 eyecare should be digitally-enabled, affordable, accessible, and easy to understand. With 19 franchise-owned branches across South Africa and an online store, the company\u2019s offering is disrupting the traditional model.<\/p>\n
\u201cOptique has always been about redefining eyecare accessibility through an innovative business model that blends technology, affordability, and convenience. This investment from Knife Capital is a pivotal step in accelerating our growth, expanding our footprint, and ensuring that more people have access to world-class optometry services,\u201d said Optique founder Leon van Vuuren.<\/p>\n
Keet van Zyl, co-founder and partner at Knife Capital, said his company\u2019s focus had always been on backing entrepreneurs who execute with \u201cpurpose and clarity\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Sticitt and Optique are solving real-world problems in bold ways, whether it\u2019s digitising school payments or delivering innovative, digitally-enabled vision solutions. These investments reflect our belief in businesses that blend innovation, traction, and tenacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African VC firm Knife Capital has marked 15 years of investing by announcing new Series A investments…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,607,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-35759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}