Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures · Joined 2020
View Live Interactive Profile →Janade du Plessis co-founded Launch Africa Ventures with Zachariah George in 2020, and press coverage identifies him as managing partner of the firm. Launch Africa describes itself as a pan-African VC fund addressing the funding gap at seed and pre-Series A, and its own site states that it has raised over US$36 million and invested US$31 million into 133 startups across 22 countries. Before founding Launch Africa he spent 18 years in corporate roles including stints at the African Development Bank, where he was a Chief Investment Officer, at Rand Merchant Bank and at Nedbank. He holds a Master's degree in Finance, Economics and Business Administration, is a PhD candidate in Business Science, and was a Harvard South Africa Fellowship Program Fellow in 2020 to 2021. He also co-founded Five35 Ventures, a pan-African female-focused VC fund.