Our Team
IFA is managed by two partners Sol Bezuidenhout and Anton Kleingeld, who collectively have more than 35 years of experience across venture capital, financial services, quantitative analysis, strategy, and advisory services. We work with a network of partners for access to specific technical skills like financial modelling or legal and regulatory requirements, when appropriate.
To date, we have supported more than 45 businesses with technical assistance and investment readiness support. We have a strategic partnership with Edge Growth for the supply of bespoke services to businesses and investors that best fit our capability set.
Sol Bezuidenhout
Sol is an investment professional with over 20 years’ experience. He is a qualified chemical engineer with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Stellenbosch. He started his career in mining but swiftly transitioned into finance in 2005 when he joined HBD Venture Capital, Mark Shuttleworth’s Venture Capital business, as an analyst. During 2008 he joined Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa as an Investment Manager at the funds inception and ended up as the Managing Partner for Hasso Plattner Capital Africa, the family office for one of the founders of SAP Software where he worked until 2015. Since then, Sol has been involved in several entrepreneurial ventures including corporate advisory, fund raising for businesses etc. Since 2021 Sol co-founded IFA to provide Technical Assistance and investment readiness support to the Anglo-American Sustainable Investment Initiative who support selected business in Southern Africa to get investment ready and to match them to a panel of over 70 local and global investors.
How We Work
Our operating model is based on the following principles: