For the most part, the desire to launch a business usually stems from one of two perspectives. Number one, it is the potential for financial gain and growth, while for others, it is the desire to translate a vision into reality.
Someone with such an idea and impeccable desire mostly succeeds and flourish their entrepreneurial idea to best possible level with unending perseverance and passion.
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That someone is Vinny Lingham, a 360-degree entrepreneur who has launched and invested heavily in various tech startups over the years since 2003.
He’s appeared as a Shark on Shark Tank South Africa, and has also contributed as a Dragon on the South African edition of Dragon’s Den, the longest-running investment reality show based in the UK.
Vinny was born and bred in the Eastern Cape, and later moved to Cape Town where he studied Information Systems at UCT, but dropped out in his final year to pursue his own entrepreneurial ventures.
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Here’s How Vinny Lingham Made His MultiMillion Dollar Fortunes
incuBeta
In 2003, Langham launched incuBeta, an investment holding company that engages in management, ownership, and support of online marketing companies in various stages of development, with offices in Cape Town, US and the UK.
In the same year, he founded Clicks2Customers, a subsidiary of incuBeta that provides search engine marketing software and services. incuBeta was acquired by Interface in 2012.
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Yola
In 2007, Lingham founded Yola, a web development platform for small businesses, individuals, and organizations, which he ran ran as CEO until 2012 when he left to start another startup.
In 2008, after realizing there were few opportunities for investors in SA to exit their start-up companies due to larger companies not being interested in mergers or acquisitions, he relocated to the US with the hopes of competing in the global technological market, take advantages of the opportunities that Silicon Valley offers.
According to Vinny, most businesses in Silicon Valley that are generating more than $50 million a year, already have a corporate development person who’s full-time job is finding companies to buy, but that culture hasn’t yet permeated in South Africa, so the upside for angel investors is limited when it comes to making a return on investment in a short space of time.
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Silicon Cape
In 2009, alongside Justin Stanford, he co-founded Silicon Cape, a South African-based organization with the aim of turning the Western Cape into a high-tech startup hub.
Gyft
One day, he walked into Starbucks in San Francisco and paid for his coffee using a mobile gift card on his phone, it was then that he decided to build an app that could let people do this for any merchant out there.
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After conducting research, he saw a great demand for such gift cards. So in 2012, without much hesitation, he left his job as the CEO of Yola to start Gyft, a digital gift card app. Gyft sells gift cards, and makes it easy for businesses to offer loyalty programs to consumers.
In a space of 2 years, the startup became the leading service in the mobile gift card space, and was acquired by First Data Corporation for more than $54 million in 2014.
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Newton Partners
Newton Partners
In 2014, alongside Llew Claasen, he co-founded Newton Partners on the set of Dragon’s Den. The company is a venture capital firm that actively invests in emerging, disruptive technology startups.
Newtown Partners has led early stage investments into successful and notable startups including the likes Sweep South, BLOOMABLE, and Augmentors.
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Civic
In 2015, Vinny launched Civic, a startup that encrypts identity information on the blockchain. The company raised in excess of over $33 million in funding during its Initial Coin Offering in June of 2017.
Personally, Vinny has invested in the following companies:
- Dec 21, 2021 RNDR Token — Initial Coin Offering – $30M
- Dec 18, 2021 SportsIcon — Seed Round – $5.6M
- Oct 26, 2021 Minima — Series A – $6.5M
- Oct 19, 2021 Concept Art House — Series A – $25M
- Jul 29, 2021 Secured Finance — Seed Round – $4M
- Jun 8, 2021 Flare Network — Venture Round – $11.3M
- Jul 12, 2018 Stronghold — Seed Round – $3.3M
- Dec 15, 2017 Blockfolio — Seed Round – $3.2M
- Dec 1, 2017 Emerge — Seed Round – $4.7M
- May 3, 2017 Swiftly — Venture Round – $2.5M
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The money will follow….
According to Vinny, aspiring entrepreneurs should focus on areas where they’re passionate about, and learn as much as they can about it – the money will follow!
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