CV VC hires former KPMG and Deutsche Bank employee to lead African investments

Blockchain venture capital firm CV VC has appointed Jarryd Kennedy as its new head of investments, Africa. Kennedy is expected to link up with the firm’s African head of growth, Brenton Naicker in South Africa. 

Quick facts

• Kennedy, an investment professional who previously worked for KPMG and Convergence Partners, will oversee the VC firm’s fundraising efforts for its Africa fund. 
• The company also expects that Kennedy will support blockchain startups building in and for the African market. 
• CV VC has already invested in a few notable African blockchain startups including House Africa, Ivory Pay, Jamit and Web3 Sanctuary. 

What was said 

• The company said: 

“Jarryd has joined as our new head of investments Africa, linking up with Brenton Naicker on the ground in South Africa. Jarryd will spearhead our fundraising efforts for the African Fund and support Web3 startups building on the African continent.” 

Why this matters 

Venture capital investment in Africa has been subpar in comparison to other continents in the world. 

• In 2023, venture capital inflow to Africa was valued at $4.5 billion, $2 billion lower than the year before. 
• This value represented only 1.6% of the total global venture capital funding in 2023, highlighting the dearth of venture capital inflows in Africa. 

Zooming into the blockchain scene, the figures would appear less grim when taken out of context. According to a CV VC and Absa report, African blockchain companies received 6.4% of the total venture capital funding in Africa, exceeding the global average of 3.5%. 

• In addition, African companies received 1.8% of the total global blockchain venture capital funding deals in the first half of 2024. 
• While this is an increase from the 1.3% recorded in the same period the year before, African blockchain startups are still far behind in venture capital investments compared to companies in Asia, Europe and America. 
• In terms of actual value received, African blockchain companies raised 34.7 million USD, a 70% decline from 116 million USD in the same period in the previous year and a part of a broader, global funding drop.

But

• However, CV VC's report lacks a vital caveat — it considered all companies headquartered in the continent as African.
• For example, the report classifies global cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and the Ethereum scaling service Scroll.io as African companies merely because they’re registered in Seychelles.
• This lacks the context that KuCoin and Scroll became African companies because they found a regulatory haven in Seychelles.
• Neither of these companies is African-founded. They also do not earn most of their revenue from the continent.
• A review of the report with this in mind shows that venture capital investment into Africa is much smaller than often touted.

Zoom out

• Experts believe that the unclear regulatory stance of several African countries is to blame for the continent’s small share of the global funding pie. 
• However, with regulations shaping up in more African countries in 2024, South Africa most of all, the funding landscape could be set to change. 
• In addition, Kennedy’s appointment to oversee CV Labs’ venture capital activities in Africa could see that Africa is represented at the table where venture funds are shared.