Entrepreneurs, backing entrepreneurs
Every principal at Caban has built, run, or sold a business of their own. That's not a line in a brochure — it's the reason the firm exists in the shape it does, and it shapes every conversation we have with the founders and owners who come to us.
Why lived experience, specifically
Most advisory firms hire analysts and train them in frameworks. Caban was built the other way round: by people who had already run businesses, made payroll, negotiated with a bank that said no, and sold a company they'd spent years building — and only then turned to advising others doing the same thing.
That ordering matters. Someone who has sat in the founder's chair asks different questions than someone who has only ever advised from across the table. They know which numbers in a business plan are optimistic rounding and which are real. They know what a founder means when they say "we're fine on runway" and don't quite believe it themselves.
How it shows up in the work
It's why every engagement at Caban starts with a direct conversation with a principal, not a form disappearing into a portal. It's why we're comfortable telling a founder we're not the right fit for them, rather than stringing out a process that was never going anywhere. It's why our services-for-equity model exists at all — professional services offered on credit, for a minority stake, because we understand what it's like to need help before you can afford to pay for it.
It's also why, when we do back a business, we tend to stay close to it rather than disappearing after the deal closes. We've been on the other end of an investor who vanished the moment the wire cleared. That's not how we work.
Entrepreneurs, wherever they are
Caban operates across Sub-Saharan Africa on the understanding that a good business idea doesn't care which city it started in. Our teams are on the ground in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, with Caban Capital in London connecting African businesses to UK and European capital when the local market isn't enough on its own.
Backing entrepreneurs across that geography, deliberately, is part of the same instinct: the people building real businesses in Durban or Nairobi deserve the same quality of attention as anyone building one in London or New York.
What that looks like in numbers
Three ways this actually plays out
Not abstractions — specific, standing habits that come directly from having been an entrepreneur first.
We back what we believe in
Our services-for-equity model means Caban sometimes takes a minority stake instead of a fee. We only do that when we'd genuinely want to own a piece of the business ourselves — which is a very different filter than billing hours.
We say "no" when it's true
An honest answer within five working days beats a hopeful process that quietly goes nowhere for three months. We'd rather point a founder to the right funder than keep them waiting on the wrong one.
We measure more than the exit
Every investment is measured on financial, social, and environmental return — not because it's fashionable, but because the entrepreneurs we've backed have always cared about more than the multiple.
Want to be part of it?
If this is how you already think about building things, we'd like to hear from you.