By Tana Malinga

With youth entrepreneurship, creative enterprise and catalytic finance taking centre stage, InvestFest is proving that the right connection can turn a promising business into a powerful economic player.
For an entrepreneur, sometimes the biggest breakthrough does not begin with a cheque.
It begins with one introduction, one conversation, one investor willing to listen and one opportunity to get into the game.
That is the energy behind InvestFest, where ambitious entrepreneurs, investors, government, corporates and development partners are stepping onto the same field to explore what becomes possible when funding meets expertise, networks and determination.

Among those stories is that of Grace Legodi, founder of Keyo Ventures, a Southern African venture capital fund focused on providing early-stage alternative financing to green businesses.
After spending a decade in investment banking, Legodi had seen the funding gap up close, particularly among smaller businesses pursuing opportunities in the green economy.Rather than simply identifying the problem, she decided to enter the arena herself.Through Anglo American’s Impact Finance Network (IFN), Keyo Ventures received a R2 million catalytic investment. But the real game-changer was what followed, that initial funding helped the venture attract a further R35 million commitment from an institutional investor.

It is precisely this multiplier effect that InvestFest wants to see replicated across the entrepreneurial ecosystem.“We have seen catalytic funding de-risk opportunities, attract follow-on investment and help entrepreneurs scale their business,” says Emma Parker, Sustainable and Impact Finance Manager at Anglo American.
For Parker, stories such as Keyo Ventures demonstrate why InvestFest matters — creating connections capable of unlocking opportunities far beyond the first investment.

R1.8 BILLION AND COUNTING
Since 2021, Anglo American’s Impact Finance Network has supported more than 162 businesses through tailored technical assistance, investment-readiness support and access to networks.The result is significant: the programme has mobilised more than R1.8 billion in third-party capital and contributed to sustaining more than 46,000 livelihoods across Southern Africa.
Those numbers tell a bigger story about what happens when entrepreneurs are not left to navigate the business battlefield alone.

InvestFest, convened and enabled by the IFN in partnership with the UK Government and the Anglo American Foundation, is designed to close some of the gaps that continue to stand between promising businesses and sustainable growth.But this year’s gathering is putting an especially strong spotlight on young entrepreneurs and their potential to influence South Africa’s economic future.

YOUTH TAKES THE FIELD
Through the Youth Zone, delivered in partnership with SA Youth, young entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers were given a dedicated space to meet investors, exchange ideas and build relationships.The event also opened the door wider to the creative economy, recognising an industry with enormous potential to generate jobs, businesses and inclusive economic participation.The Creative Studio brought creative entrepreneurs into conversations around growing their businesses, reaching new customers and accessing investment.It is a reminder that entrepreneurship does not wear one jersey.It can emerge from technology, agriculture, green enterprise, creative industries, manufacturing or a small idea being developed from the ground up.

BUILDING AN ECONOMY THAT CAN LAST
The wider IFN ecosystem is also receiving significant backing. Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore, through its Impact Finance Facility, has committed R51.2 million over five years to support businesses in the Northern Cape, while the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is contributing £4.5 million to expand the programme and provide practical support to businesses preparing for investment.For Kumba CEO Mpumi Zikalala, the ambition goes beyond individual businesses.“One of our key priorities is to build a more diverse and resilient regional economy in the Northern Cape,” she says.The impact has already been demonstrated through a mini-InvestFest in Kathu, where entrepreneurs were connected with capital and opportunities.

The message coming out of InvestFest is therefore bigger than funding.
It is about building bridges between ideas and investment, entrepreneurs and markets, ambition and execution.As Josephine Hetherington, Head of Economic Development at the British High Commission in South Africa, puts it, entrepreneurship can create opportunities not only for young people themselves, but for others who depend on the businesses they build.
And perhaps that is the most important takeaway.A R1.8 billion milestone may make the headline but every investment represents a business given a chance, a job potentially sustained, an idea allowed to grow and an entrepreneur given another opportunity to compete.

For South Africa’s young business builders, the starting whistle has sounded.
The next chapter is about turning opportunity into momentum and momentum into lasting economic growth.