My name is Alexandria.
I’m a South African startup founder, investor, government advisor and author based in Cape Town and London.
CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
LONDON UNITED KINGDOM
Upstart
I’m the founder and managing director of Pharos of Alexandria Ventures, a venture capital fund, venture studio and startup consultancy that was created following a UNDP strategy lab. We are actively investing in startups. Pitch deck submissions are on the on the Pharos Fund page.
I founded DigsConnect, Africa’s largest student and coliving platform, which I started as an undergrad student at the University of Cape Town. I stepped down as CEO and Head of Product after running the company from inception for 6 years.
I’m a director of South Africa’s National Youth Development Agency, appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2021.
My second book, Upstart, was published in February 2024 and tells the story of how this all happened. It’s currently 8 on the best seller’s list in South Africa.
Press Coverage
-
Fast Company Magazine
-
Business Insider Newspaper
-
Fast Company Magazine
-
Asset Magazine
Pharos Fund
-
Pharos conducts consulting work with startups and funds on all stages of the startup journey - preseed to scale-up.
-
Pharos is actively investing in startups. Submit your pitch deck on our submissions page.
-
Pharos collaborates with other funds on deal flow and co-investments. Please feel free to reach out for a meeting.
-
With our partners, Pharos operates as venture studio, ideating on new startup ideas and rapidly iterating and validating the models and concepts before initiating a full build and rapid scaling.
We also work with corporates on spinning out in-house company ventures into fully fledged businesses.
