In the early 2000s, mentioning "venture capital" in a South African boardroom rarely got far. There was no local precedent to point to, no institutional appetite for the asset class, and early-stage investing was widely regarded as too risky to be a legitimate allocation for serious money. The ecosystem wasn't underdeveloped — it was virtually non-existent.
That's the landscape Brett Commaille stepped into.
RemGro recruited Brett as founding CEO of its venture capital arm, Invenfin, tasking him with defining corporate VC strategy at one of the country's most influential investment houses — at a point when the participants in the local venture fund landscape could be counted on one hand. He arrived as a chartered accountant who had, by his own account, worked every job going since he was 12, and who understood the cost of building something from nothing because he'd funded his own failed ideas off savings and his mortgage long before he ever managed anyone else's capital. There was no industry standing behind him yet. There was just the work of proving, deal by deal, that institutional capital could responsibly back this asset class in South Africa.
This led him to co-found AngelHub, South Africa's first angel investment group. AngelHub laid groundwork for early-stage investing in the country before the category had any mainstream credibility, and under Brett's leadership it grew into Angelhub Ventures, one of the region's most active VC funds - backed by respected South African family offices and known for identifying and supporting high-potential entrepreneurs early.
That work has compounded into something substantial. Brett is today a co-founder and partner at Hlayisani Capital, a firm he has helped grow into one of South Africa's leading venture platforms. Under the Hlayisani banner, he and his partners have launched three successful funds with over R1 billion in assets under management, backing scalable, high-growth businesses across the continent - including most recently, Spatialedge, Glynt Group and Wamly. More broadly, South Africa now leads Africa in venture activity, with close to R13.35 billion moving across roughly 1,325 deals annually - a market that didn't build itself, but was built, gradually, by people willing to do the unglamorous early work when there was no track record and no institutional trust yet earned.
What distinguishes Brett isn't only this track record - it's his sustained commitment to the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. He has been a consistent, vocal advocate for the role startups and high-growth businesses play in unlocking South Africa's economic potential, particularly in underserved and emerging markets. Through his investments, his mentorship of founders, and his thought leadership across the industry, he hasn't just built companies; he has helped build venture capital itself, as a viable, trusted category in this country.
His view of the market remains unsentimental. There's no IPO waiting at the end of the road here, so every business Hlayisani backs has to solve the problem most large SA companies still struggle with - selling successfully into other markets. He's equally direct about talent: the only way to know someone can sell is to watch them actually sell; and the best businesses are built by great teams - a lone genius without a strong team around them is seldom a winning bet. It's also shaped his read on experience versus raw ambition - most of the founders he's seen achieve success are past 35, not because youth lacks promise, but because the businesses that survive tend to be built by people who've already been tested elsewhere.
These aren't abstractions for us. They're the same principles that inform how Hlayisani evaluates every opportunity that comes across our desk today - a direct line from the lessons learned by our team in building an industry from zero to the funds we run now.
It's worth saying plainly: The ecosystem South African founders operate in today may be tough, but it keeps getting better - access to capital, comparables, an actual playbook for building and scaling a venture-backed business - and it exists because those early entrepreneurs and investors have chosen to persevere and keep building for a time when the real opportunity would be recognised. Eighteen years in, by his own admission, there’s no Porsche, but there’s a stable of business steadily expanding into markets around the world - and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Ask him about any one of them and he’s excited to rattle off their story, like a proud parent who knows they are watching greatness emerge. Each one on a mission, each one with people determined to change how things are done, and each one backed by investors who’ll walk/run/sprint alongside to the finish line.
Read the full feature on Brett's journey from The Open Letter: How Venture Capital Was Born in SA
