Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

South Africa’s exchange control regulations and intellectual property transfer rules are harming the potential of South Africa’s start-up ecosystem.

This is the view of Llew Claasen, co-founder – with Vinny Lingham – of venture capital firm Newtown Partners, who says the regulations make it difficult for venture capital providers to invest in local start-ups.

Claasen joins the TechCentral podcast (listen to the discussion below) to talk about the changes the South African Reserve Bank should make to address the problem.

The regulations, Claasen says in the interview, make it harder for South African entrepreneurs to be successful on the global stage. And the rules mean South Africa is at risk of – and, in fact, very likely already is – missing out on the billions of dollars in global investment money targeting start-ups from the African continent.

In the podcast, Claasen also talks about Newtown Partners’ history, the investments it’s made, the company’s partnership with Imperial Group and its focus on corporate venture capital.

Claasen, who is an enthusiast of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, also expands on why he’s excited about decentralised finance, or DeFi, as well as social tokens, and where he sees the crypto space going in the coming years.

Don’t miss the discussion!

Listen to the podcast

How to subscribe to TechCentral’s podcasts

There are many ways to enjoy TechCentral’s podcasts, beyond simply streaming them from the website. The best way is by subscribing to them using an app on your phone, allowing you to listen in the car (via Bluetooth), at the gym or wherever you happen to be. Use the links below to subscribe:

TechCentral podcasts are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. This means you may copy and redistribute the material unmodified, but you must provide the appropriate credit to TechCentral, with a link to this page.  — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media