South African Web 2.0 Startup Gets 35 Million Rand

I'm really stoked to see that my friend and Skyrove shareholder, Vinny Lingham, has just raised $5 million venture capital for Synthasite!

To put that in context: $5 million is almost R35 million.

This is by far the biggest Web 2.0 investment in South Africa to date and is even more significant considering that SynthaSite only launched into Beta two weeks ago.

The greatest thing about this is that it proves that anyone with a great idea and a lot of energy can launch a multimillion Rand business right here in South Africa. So if you have anything up your sleeve and happen to be graduating this year, say "no" to McKinsey/Accenture/Deloitte and start your own business!

Speed Dating for VCs & Entrepreneurs

The 3rd Open Coffee Club (OCC) Cape Town is happening this Wednesday.

If you are an entrepreneur, a VC, or someone clever looking for some 'Entrepreneur Porn' this is the perfect place to meet some like-minded folks with smart ideas and/or cash to invest in the next killer app!

From their website:

The Open Coffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow. Read the blog post that started the ball rolling.

I will be giving a short (10 min max) presentation about some of the experiences (read: mistakes) I've had with trying to raise funding for Skyrove, as well as how the Open Coffee Club was integral to raising our latest round from Lingham Capital.

Check out Eric Edelstein's post for details.

Lingham Capital Invests in Skyrove

This post has been moved to GeekRebel.com

I'm delighted to announce that Skyrove has acquired its first round of Venture Capital from 'VC 2.0' firm, Lingham Capital.

Vinny Lingham has the magic ingredients to become a successful Venture Capitalist. He's an entrepreneur who's been there, done that. He's investing his own money and, more importatly, his own time/bandwidth into the handful of startups he's funding! (For now Skyrove and Synthasite) He's not managing other people's money nor is he having someone else manage his. He's made a commitment not to invest in more companies than in which he could play an active role.

I asked Vinny to do Guy Kawasaki's VCAT (Venture Capital Aptitude Test), and he scored more than 40 points.

If Vinny keeps following the no bullshiitake approach to investing in other startups that he did in dealing with Skyrove, I foresee Lingham Capital as the first VC fund in South Africa to even come close to their Silicon Valley counterparts.