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Naspers has shut down its SA-focused tech investment vehicle Foundry, with these investments set to be managed by its corporate team, while local startup opportunities will be considered, but along with their global counterparts.
Business Day reported the shutdown on Monday, a move which removes a dedicated team focused on SA.
A Naspers spokesperson confirmed this to News24, who said Naspers remains "fully committed to South Africa and will continue to evaluate new investments in line with the same approach taken in other markets".
Foundry was set up in 2019 as a vehicle to invest R1.4 billion in early-stage technology businesses. It has since invested R740 million, and has 10 active investments, including online home services platform Sweepsouth, rent-to-buy car firm Planet42 and insurtech outfit Naked.
"While we made headway in deploying the capital, the start-up space remains very nascent given the historic lack of investment in the tech ecosystem," Naspers said.
"This, combined with the fact that the global environment, as well as the local SA one, is not what it was in the years where we were in an aggressive growth mode, has meant that we have needed to review the Naspers Foundry investment strategy and to bring it in line with the rest of the world."
This formed part of a number of changes across the global business to realign efforts on specific areas and reduce the groups cost base, the spokesperson said, adding that Naspers continued to be "the proud owners of Media24, Takealot, Superbalist, Mr D, PayU, Property24 and Autotrader".
Takealot is enabling more than 8 000 small and medium-sized enterprises across SA to grow their businesses, is supporting over 33 000 jobs and is creating an even more competitive retail market for the benefit of South African consumers, Naspers said.
Earlier in March, Prosus, the consumer internet arm of Naspers, said it was looking to exit its vehicle-trading business OLX Autos, citing high costs and a slow-down in the second-hand car market.
In January, Bloomberg reported that Prosus and its parent Naspers were planning to cut their corporate workforce by 30%, becoming the latest global tech company to announce layoffs.
