History

The Jacana co-founders are four individuals with a background in venture capital and entrepreneurialism and a commitment to philanthropy and development. Their motivation in founding Jacana is to make a sustainable contribution to the alleviation of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Jacana started its business development process in mid-2008 with a high-level mapping exercise targeted at understanding Africa’s SME, private equity, social venture capital and venture philanthropy landscape. The survey particularly focused on the availability of financing for those organisations comprising the “missing middle” of private sector finance in SSA outside South Africa. As a result of the survey, the Jacana team concluded that the support of SMEs via a private equity-type platform offered a scalable and sustainable model to drive widespread economic development.

In early 2009, following the completion of the mapping survey and further work talking to potential partners and investors, the four co-founding investors in Jacana decided to take Jacana forward into its execution phase, starting with in-market due diligence in selected African markets.

Our Name

The team wanted to adopt a name which was both distinctive and associated with Africa in an indirect way. The creation of an SME fund management industry in SSA is a long-term project. In order to achieve its objectives, the Jacana team will need to be innovative and overcome significant challenges. The Jacana, a bird indigenous to many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, demonstrates these qualities in its ability to walk across the surface of the water using lily pads for support.

Founders in Focus: Stephen Dawson explains the thinking behind Jacana