South Africa’s industrial economy is brutally simple: capital is never enough; execution is everything. Factories stall during loadshedding, supply chains buckle, and SMEs with real potential die on the vine because no one sits in the CEO chair with the skill (and incentive) to scale them.
That is precisely the gap Secha Capital is attacking with its newly launched Chief Executive Operator Investor (CEOI) model, a hybrid that pairs growth capital with a fully embedded, equity-holding CEO whose job is singular: make the company grow.
On December 9, 2025, Secha unveiled its first South African CEOI deal in Barracuda Holdings Ltd, an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firm with a deep engineering pedigree and untapped scale.
Backed alongside 27four Investment Managers and Shade Tree Capital, this investment is not simply more money for a promising SME but a leadership injection into a company positioned to dominate a niche that most investors overlook.
The move is a strategic masterstroke. And the timing? Even better.
Since 2017, Secha Capital, the Black, female-founded growth impact firm led by Dr. Nombuso Nkambule, Brendan Mullen, and Rushil Vallabh, has built its brand around one belief: African SMEs don’t lack markets; they lack managerial bandwidth.
With a $30 million Fund II (first close: R300 million, target: R650 million), Secha backs stable, profitable SMEs in “boring” but essential sectors comprising FMCG, manufacturing, and agri-processing, the kinds of companies that form the backbone of a real economy.
Their core innovation has been the Operator-Investor model, where Secha deploys experienced professionals into portfolio companies for 12–18 months to implement operational playbooks. It’s hands-on, straightforward, and highly effective generating impact multiples above 25x.
But the CEOI model goes further:
- The CEO is not a consultant.
- They help originate the deal.
- They invest their own capital.
- They step in full-time to run the company.
As Secha MD Brendan Mullen puts it:
“South Africa’s next decade will be defined by execution capital money with a CEO, an operating playbook, and a mandate for delivery.”
With SMEs contributing 60% of GDP yet suffering a 70% failure rate within five years, the CEOI directly targets South Africa’s “missing “middle” firms needing R50–100 million and real managerial depth.
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Barracuda: The EMS Powerhouse Hiding in Plain Sight
Barracuda Holdings quietly manufactures high-mix, low-to-medium-volume PCB assemblies for more than 100 clients across:
- Telematics and fleet tracking
- Industrial automation
- Energy and solar
- Defence and aerospace
- Space and satellite systems
It is, in short, one of the few local EMS players with:
- Reliable quality
- Engineering credibility
- Mission-critical clients
- A reputation built over years, not PR campaigns
Founded by Rob Steltman and Ryan Webb, Barracuda is exactly the kind of company South Africa needs more of: technically strong, operationally stable, and strategically under-scaled.
But to catch up to demand in Africa’s booming renewables, defence, and industrial automation markets together projected to exceed R100 billion by 2030, Barracuda needed both capital and leadership firepower.
Secha’s CEOI model thrives in companies where founders have strong technical or commercial talent but limited capacity to scale operations. Barracuda is a textbook example.
1. It Fills the Execution Gap
EMS is brutal: certifications to maintain, just-in-time sourcing, quality control, and constant capex planning. Steltman and Webb remain for what they do best: engineering and customer relationships. CEOI brings a leader to architect the scaling.
Enter Aengus Stanley, Shade Tree Capital founder and veteran of industrial turnarounds, who steps in as Barracuda’s new CEO with a meaningful equity stake. Secha’s Seshan Chettiar embeds alongside him for the transition.
Stanley’s mandate:
- Expand production capacity.
- Strengthen supply chain resilience.
- Chase mega-contracts local firms have historically lost to European/Asian manufacturers.
2. It Aligns Incentives Around Hyper-Growth
Equity ownership means the CEOI is not optimising for salary; instead, he’s optimising for enterprise value. Secha’s SAIL framework (Strategy, Alignment, Implementation, Legacy) provides the blueprint.
Targets:
- 3–5x return
- 150+ new manufacturing jobs
- Export penetration into SADC and Europe
3. It Turns Barracuda Into a Sovereign Manufacturing Champion
South Africa imports most electronics components. Barracuda already exports to Europe. With CEOI execution, it becomes a preferred supplier for local-content mandates in:
- Defence and aerospace
- Solar/renewables
- IoT and telematics
- Industrial automation
4. It Delivers Real Impact
Electronics is one of the biggest opportunity areas for youth upskilling. Scaling Barracuda could train and certify 500+ young technicians in EMS, feeding Africa’s $20 billion green and digital tech economy.
This isn’t Secha’s first activity. The firm’s prior wins from FMCG to renewable tech (including Plentify’s Series A-III in November 2025) prove that embedded operators unlock scale far more reliably than passive capital.
South Africa faces a 32.9% unemployment rate and a shrinking manufacturing base. Reindustrialisation won’t be driven by multinationals. It will come from mid-sized, founder-built companies that need leadership as much as liquidity.
CEOI is engineered for exactly that.
Capital Overview
Rainbow Capital has steadily expanded its footprint in South Africa’s investment landscape, with Africa Rainbow Capital emerging as one of the most active players backing high-growth African venture capital opportunities.
Through African Capital Investments, the group continues to diversify into sectors that offer long-term value, building a portfolio that reflects the broader ambitions of African Rainbow Capital companies across fintech, infrastructure, and consumer markets.
As venture capital in Cape Town gains momentum, ARC’s presence underscores how local institutional capital is increasingly shaping the trajectory of homegrown startups and scaling businesses across the continent.
Ronnie Paul is a seasoned writer and analyst with a prolific portfolio of over 1,000 published articles, specialising in fintech, cryptocurrency, climate change, and digital finance at Africa Digest News.
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