To raise debt from an African bank for a tech project, most founders still face a bureaucratic gauntlet — layers of paperwork, a parade of collateral demands, and a suspicion that innovation might not repay. But South African banks are bucking that trend. In fact, they’re quietly becoming some of the continent’s most consistent backers of venture-scale tech deals — especially those straddling infrastructure, energy, fintech, and data.

This week, CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) and Standard Bank South Africa announced the close of a landmark $60m subordinated debt facility. The funds will kickstart early procurement for a 30MW baseload renewable energy plant being developed for Kamoa Copper S.A. in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

That’s just the first step. The project’s full scope includes a 223MWp solar PV plant and a 526MWh battery storage system — making it one of the largest renewable power projects in Central Africa. Standard Bank’s debt facility, closed in just seven weeks, enables CBE to fast-track long-lead purchases including solar panels and substations.

It’s not the first time the two institutions have worked together. Standard Bank previously led a $141m senior debt facility for CBE in 2024, and is reportedly planning to upsize that support to meet CBE’s growing project pipeline.

“This is not only about clean energy,” said a person familiar with the deal. “It’s about setting a precedent: that infrastructure deals in Africa can move at the speed and structure of venture deals — if banks are bold enough.”

The Rise of Scalable Tech Debt

Standard Bank’s appetite for tech-aligned infrastructure isn’t isolated. In recent years, South African banks have quietly participated in some of the continent’s biggest venture debt rounds — sometimes in partnership with international development finance institutions, but often taking the lead themselves.

Take Wave, the Senegal-headquartered mobile money unicorn backed by Sequoia and Stripe. Recently, it secured €117m ($137m) in debt financing to deepen its expansion across West Africa. The round was led by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), the corporate investment arm of FirstRand Group, with participation from British International Investment, Norfund, and Finnfund.

The deal allows Wave to scale its radically low-cost mobile money infrastructure — free deposits and withdrawals, 1% transfer fees, and merchant-borne bill charges — across countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon, where it recently gained regulatory approval. The company claims over 20 million monthly active users and a network of 150,000 agents.

Debt as a Growth Lever, Not a Last Resort

In fintech, too, South African lenders are proving critical. In 2023, Standard Bank led a $202m debt package for M-KOPA, the Kenya-headquartered digital credit platform operating in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana. It was one of the largest sustainability-linked financing deals in Africa.

The funds enabled M-KOPA — whose platform links micropayments with IoT — to expand access to smartphones, solar kits, and digital loans for low-income customers. The fintech also raised $36.5m in equity, with Standard Bank playing a central role in managing its multicurrency risk and structuring.

“Standard Bank’s understanding of African markets gives us an edge,” said Jesse Moore, M-KOPA’s CEO. “They aren’t just a lender — they’re a strategic partner.”

Mapping the Bankers Behind the Deals

A handful of other South African institutions are becoming known names in tech venture debt:

• Nedbank CIB has backed tech firms such as the Cape Town-based data privacy startup Omnisient across several rounds since 2017. The company’s intersect.ai platform helps enterprises share customer data securely — without violating privacy rules. Nedbank’s early bet helped Omnisient scale its footprint with major South African insurers and retailers.
• Investec, another Johannesburg-based bank, has supported fintechs like Crossfin and Lesaka. The latter, which acquired Bank Zero and Adumo, has secured more than R800m ($44m) facility from Investec to fuel its growth as South Africa’s largest independent fintech.
• Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has provided debt capital to AZA Finance (formerly BitPesa), a Nairobi-born FX and crypto payments startup that’s now part of Uruguay-based dLocal. More recently, DBSA backed Zero Carbon Charge, a startup building solar-powered EV charging stations along South African highways, with a R100m ($5.6m) equity investment.

What’s Driving the Trend?

South African banks’ growing involvement in tech-aligned debt is no accident. With a relatively sophisticated capital base and strong regional exposure, these lenders have an edge when it comes to underwriting risk in frontier markets. Unlike global venture lenders who struggle to understand the regulatory volatility or informal nuances of African markets, local institutions often have boots-on-the-ground knowledge — and the currency tools to match.

This enables them to move quickly when opportunities arise. The CrossBoundary deal closed in seven weeks. The Planet42 facility — $16m from Standard Bank for a car subscription service — came just months after the company raised from Rivonia Road Capital and Naspers Foundry.

For many of these startups, debt is no longer just an afterthought, it is a way to scale without giving up control — especially when the bank knows your customers, your regulators, and your currency risk better than anyone.

It’s still early days, but the pattern is clear: South African banks are no longer just funders of cement and steel. They’re increasingly powering the infrastructure — digital, financial, and green — on which Africa’s next generation of tech companies are being built.

In a region where traditional lending is often misaligned with innovation, these institutions may be quietly rewriting the playbook — one structured facility at a time.