Investors in SME’s

SOVEC (Social Venture Capital Fund I) is an investment fund set up by Dutch entrepreneurs to invest in small and medium sized companies (SME’s) in Africa.

SOVEC Fund's main objective is to stimulate sustainable economic growth in Africa. We strongly believe that this can best be realized by private sector development: i.e. investing in SME’s.

SOVEC supports local entrepreneurs by investing capital and adding value where possible. We always invest our capital in a joint effort with our Local Investment Partners (LIP’s). We add value by connecting our own network of entrepreneurs to the local SME’s (E4E).

Venture Capital (VC) fills the gap between micro finance and bank finance. VC is based on a long term and risk-sharing commitment from the investor and reduces the SME's burden of high interest payments. SME’s (in developing countries) have no or limited access to growth capital.

The sheer availability of long term, non interest bearing, capital provides a strong base for sustainable growth, and may create a significant competitive advantage to the SME’s. SOVEC provides such growth capital to African entrepreneurs and has found that many interesting investment opportunities are available in Africa.

In other words, we aim to combine a social goal through a business approach. Do good, while pursuing a normal financial return. We believe that “sustainable” (also) means that projects need to be economically viable and should generate sufficient financial return.