Hema Vallabh H’22 and Janade du Plessis H’18 are the general partners of Five35 Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage, tech-enabled start-ups that are either female co-owned or co-led with a largely female employment base or that have an intentional female consumer base. Five35 is a culmination of Vallabh’s work in the bigger gender ecosystem with WomEng and WomHub. “When we look at early-stage investments in general, we look at a company that has a great product or service and a good opportunity in the market. But really, at the early stage we’re backing the founder and in our case, backing really strong female founders,” says Vallabh.
The company has been supporting a growing number of Harambean women through their venture capital fund including Shuttlers, founded by Damilola Olokesusi H’18, African Foresight Group, founded by Yasmin Kumi H’16 and Zoie Health, co- founded by Thato Schermer H’22.
Africa Foresight Group is a tech talent company operating in the HR space that was founded by Yasmin Kumi H’16 in 2016. “Yasmin is a strong founder, with an extensive background in the HR tech space. Given her international, yet African exposure, she was very focused on what she wanted to achieve with AFG. With Africa being the youngest continent in terms of its workforce and given the international talent scarcity, she saw the opportunity to create a talent platform to help companies find, recruit and use talent in a better way. Essentially an Uber for talent,” says Vallabh.
Shuttlers, founded by Damilola Olekesusi H’18, was one of the first companies that Five35 invested in. Shuttlers is a tech-enabled scheduled mass transport company offering a safe, reliable and affordable transport solution in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the most populated cities on the continent. “Innovation is not always developing something new, but can be taking something that works and putting it in the right context for the first time in an innovative way, which is what Damilola is doing with Shuttlers,” says Vallabh. Olokesusi is also focused on the impact Shuttlers can have on commuter health and safety, especially for vulnerable demographics like women and children. Another impact layer is that of the benefit to the environment. “Shuttlers is also a climate tech player. By reducing traffic and the number of vehicles on the road, it offers environmental benefits too and is a great example of how a single company and solution can address a multitude of problems,” says Vallabh.
Their third investment was with Zoie Health, co-founded by Thato Schermer H’22. “This investment was special for us as we met Thato through one of our WomEng talent/fellowship programs while she was still an engineering student.” Schermer first worked as an engineer before going down the entrepreneurship route and starting Zoie Health. “Thato has participated in some of our entrepreneurship programs, not just as a participant but as an advisor and mentor. WomHub wrote her a cheque as an initial investment and we are now grooming her for potential investment in the Five35 pipeline,” says Vallabh.
The WomHub ecosystem, built by Vallabh and Naadiya Moosajee H’15 over the last almost 20 years, is the largest, if not only, fully-fledged gender lens ecosystem on the continent. Their group of companies focuses on talent, entrepreneurship, spaces and capital.
Vallabh emphasizes that the Fund has strict criteria that founders have to meet. “We work with high caliber female founders and do the work to get them more investor ready. Post our investment, we also think about their subsequent raises,” says Vallabh.
Five35 has carved out a special allocation that allows women investors and first-time women investors into Africa to invest at significantly lower barriers. “We’ve called this the 35’er Club and are building a community of women investors who are excited about the opportunities on the continent and who are also giving their time, resources and expertise and will mentor and provide advice to our portfolio companies,” says Vallabh. Harambean Guild members have joined the 35’er Club including Sneha Shah, an Executive Vice President at SEI and Head of New Business Ventures, and Amanda Pullinger, the Chief Executive Officer of 100 Women in Finance.
“Five35 is a young fund and we see Harambeans as a fruitful source of investments for the future. A golden thread that runs throughout our organization is that of community. When women are working with women, we really see the commercial and economic value when the playing field is level. Women have the absolute power to create a paradigm shift in not only how the continent grows and prospers, but also how we re-think investment and the power of community,” concludes Vallabh.