Evolutionary Awards 2025 – Effectus Capital Management: most promising new black-owned initiative

Category: Most promising new black-owned initiative

Describe your evolution:

Effectus Capital Management has evolved tremendously over the past 5 years. Initially, the business was 88% black owned and our employee base was 67% black, with no females. We had a limited track record and we struggled to grow in our first 4 years of operation. The business is now 100% black owned and our staff compliment is 100% black i.e. our investment team is fully transformed. We have taken 13 interns through our internship program – the interns were all previously disadvantaged South Africans and most of them were black women. There is incredible talent in South Africa – we just need to give opportunities to those who so desperately seek them. Our core products – Effectus Global Growth and Innovation Fund and Effectus SA Growth and Innovation Fund now have a 10 year track record and we have delivered outperformance to our clients since inception – proving that the performance of black owned asset managers is as good, if not better than asset managers who are less diverse.

Describe the impact your evolution has had in response to its identified challenges and targeted outcomes.

We now managed over R2 billion of assets (we have grown our AUM by 60% p.a. over the past 5 years). Our investors (mainly retirement funds with over 300 000 members collectively) have benefitted from R800m of value that has been created by our investment products – this aligns perfectly with our vision which is to emancipate South Africans financially by generating long term wealth through innovative investment products. We have created employment for over 20 previously disadvantaged individuals (7 women). All our interns are currently employed in the financial services industry. Our Global Growth and Innovation Fund has delivered alpha of 5.5% p.a. since inception (10 years ) whilst our SA Growth and Innovation Fund has generated alpha of 3.2% p.a. since inception (10 years). We support the Empire Partner Foundation (https://empirepartnerfoundation.org/) which is making tremendous strides in creating employment for aspiring and talented previously disadvantaged individuals whilst simultaneously working towards solving our infrastructure crises in South Africa (water, electricity, roads, agri/farming) by leveraging technology.

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