We’ve walked the walk

Newtown Partners was founded by Llew Claasen and Vinny Lingham, two entrepreneurs on the set of Dragon’s Den South Africa.

We have worked the trenches

Founded in 2014 on the set of Dragon’s Den by Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen, Newtown Partners has a strong executive team with a proven track record in technology entrepreneurship. The team has successfully launched, grown and sold technology startup businesses as entrepreneurs themselves and know what is required to succeed internationally. As investors, the team has successfully invested in and nurtured a number of early-stage companies from ideation to market-leading businesses.

Strong international networks

Vinny Lingham is very well respected within the Silicon Valley startup community. He uses these strong network connections to get early investor access to the most promising and disruptive technology startups in the US and also to help startups connect with international partners and investors.

Llew Claasen is similarly a well-respected member of the South African and international startup communities as a global technology startup thought leader, conference speaker, and technology advocate to local and international regulators.

Evolved into blockchain specialists

Newtown Partners has assisted portfolio startups with designing and issuing cryptocurrency tokens since 2016, thereby acquiring specialized skills and experience in cryptoeconomics, token sale design and demand generation. The blockchain advisory team now specializes in token economy design, implementation and maintenance of customized digital token economies for portfolio companies and clients.

Newtown Partners invests significant time and skill into ensuring that the tokens we work with have utility and value across a wide spectrum of industries and use cases. Recent industry experience includes identity management (Civic), financial services (Wala), augmented reality (Augmentors), media, cybersecurity and esports.

Post investment support

Newtown Partners provides post investment management support through board participation, activity-based mentoring and coaching. Portfolio companies have access to a range of strategic support services to help define and execute on their go-to-market strategy, product strategy and business model.

A proven track record of success

Newtown Partners has a proven track record of developing high-growth startup companies. Some recent successes include:

Civic

Sold $33 million in CVC tokens during June 2017 for a blockchain-based decentralized identity management platform, lauded as the standard in best practice for token sales. Newtown Partners redesigned and updated Civic’s token economy during February 2018 to bring it back in line with best practices.

SweepSouth

SweepSouth, an online on-demand cleaning service, was the first South African startup accepted into the prestigious 500 Startups program in Silicon Valley in the USA. Newtown Partners was the first investor in 2014 in SweepSouth, and sold this stake in 2019 to Naspers at a 15x MOIC.

Bloomable

Bloomable (formerly SA Florist), an online marketplace, was ranked as one of South Africa’s top 25 most innovative companies in 2015 (Fast Company Magazine).