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A new regulatory framework that could significantly improve how South African start-ups attract global investors and scale internationally \u2013 without breaching tax or regulatory rules \u2013 is on the cards following nearly a decade of discussions.<\/p>\n
The regulatory sandbox was discussed at a recent Southern Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (Savca<\/a>) conference.<\/p>\n Safeera Mayet, Savca head of policy and regulatory affairs, said in a statement on Thursday that the sandbox is designed to give qualifying start-ups a faster, legally sound pathway to structure offshore intellectual property (IP) while retaining their operational base and jobs in South Africa.<\/p>\n This has been hailed as a major turning point for VC, particularly for start-ups in the tech sector<\/p>\n It follows collaboration between the South African Reserve Bank, the South African Revenue Service and industry bodies. The sandbox tackles longstanding barriers such as exchange control restrictions and slow, complex deal-making processes that have historically pushed founders to move their IP abroad to raise funding.<\/p>\n It has been hailed as a major turning point for VC, particularly for start-ups in the tech sector.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sandbox is tremendously exciting in principle. It allows South African entrepreneurs to remain headquartered locally while operating legally across borders,\u201d said Adrian Dommisse, founder and director of Dommisse Attorneys.<\/p>\n For years, start-up founders have been forced to close shop locally and move their IP overseas due to a lack of access to funding. This allows them to grow and expand globally without leaving the country.<\/p>\n Win-win<\/p>\n Dommisse said that a critical step in getting the sandbox approved was demonstrating that the fiscus would not lose revenue through offshore structuring.<\/p>\n Chat commerce platform Clickatell CEO Pieter de Villiers told the conference that the solution represents a win-win for everyone. Now what is needed is the collective will to finalise these frameworks, he said.<\/p>\n Read: R300-million seed fund launched for tech start-ups in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n De Villiers warned that without meaningful reform, South Africa will remain trapped by legacy policies that prevent founders from scaling globally.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a rand-denominated investment, you can\u2019t even hire a sales leader in the US \u2013 we\u2019re locked out of these markets completely. If we want real exits and international investment, we must fix exchange control and other outdated rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Industry bodies have also called for the standardisation of early-stage deal documents, term sheets and environmental, social and governance reporting to accelerate investment flows. They warn that overcomplicating legal documents in South Africa needlessly delays dealmaking.<\/p>\n Savca and legal experts are working together to develop an open-source VC documentation suite for South Africa, similar to the UK and US where open-source standard templates are used to reduce legal complexity and cost.<\/p>\n![\"Clickatell's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/pieter-de-villiers-1500-800.jpg\")
Clickatell\u2019s Pieter de Villiers<\/p>\n