Bellatrix Investment Managers has launched the $10M Ndjaba Seed Fund to back 35 to 50 early-stage startups across Southern Africa over 10 years.
Ndjaba Seed Fund is a new $10 million venture capital fund set up by Bellatrix Investment Managers, an alternative investment firm based in Namibia.
A seed fund backs startups at the seed stage, which is an early step where teams are still proving the product and trying to find repeatable sales. These rounds are usually smaller than Series A and often decide whether a startup can hire, build, and launch reliably.
Bellatrix said the fund will build a diversified portfolio of 35 to 50 companies. It will invest over a ten-year horizon, which means it expects some companies to take a long time to mature, raise follow-on rounds, or exit.
Early-stage funding remains a major gap in Southern Africa, especially outside South Africa. TechCabal Insight data cited in the report says startups raising below $1 million attracted just 2% of total capital deployed in Africa in 2025.
The gap is sharper in Southern Africa, where much of the region’s $933 million in startup funding went to South Africa. That concentration can leave founders in Namibia and nearby markets with fewer local cheque writers, slower fundraising cycles, and less access to networks for follow-on rounds.
If Bellatrix deploys capital consistently across the region, the Ndjaba Seed Fund could help more startups reach product-market fit, meaning customers buy the product repeatedly at a sustainable cost. It could also create a larger pipeline for later-stage investors looking for validated companies in smaller Southern African ecosystems.
TechCabal, May 6, 2026
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