Investment Associate Principal

Edge Growth; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Edge Growth in Johannesburg seeks Investment Associate Principals to lead or support SME debt investments across the lifecycle. You will originate, screen and structure debt while supporting post‑investment management and governance reporting.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years in debt/credit investing, strong investment and credit analysis skills, and the ability to manage fast‑moving processes with senior stakeholders. MBA/CA/CFA advantageous.

Qualifications

• At least a graduate degree, preferably with a technical and/or quantitative emphasis (finance, engineering, accounting, law, etc).
• MBA, CA(SA), CAIA or CFA degree would be advantageous.
• 5+ years across the full deal lifecycle, with a bias toward debt/credit investing or lending to SMEs.
• Experience in Enterprise & Supplier Development or impact investing adds weight.

Responsibilities

• Deal origination and pipeline development with investor networks.
• Deal evaluation and investment structuring with senior stakeholders.
• Project management within a structured, process-driven workflow.
• Investor relations and reporting at governance bodies.
• Due diligence, financial modelling and credit analysis as core tasks.
• Engage founders and mentor junior team members.

Skills

Investment analysis

Credit analysis

Leadership

Interpersonal skills

Education

Graduate degree

MBA

CA(SA)

CAIA

CFA

Job description

Johannesburg, South Africa | Posted on 07/08/2026

Are you passionate about making a living from making living in South Africa better for everyone? Then join our team of SME Development Solutionists and help us to pioneer a new, more inclusive business landscape in South Africa while creating shared value through purpose‑led partnerships.

Job Description

Investment Associate Principals (IAPs) lead or support every stage of the SME investment process. This particular opportunity sits within one of our SME development funds, which provides predominantly debt funding to majority black‑owned SMEs within the industrial and corporate supply chains of its investors (a pooled fund plus multiple ring‑fenced investor mandates, with typical deal sizes of R1m–R10m).

Significant activities include originating and screening transactions, evaluating investment opportunities, managing due diligence, structuring and negotiating debt (and, where relevant, structured) transactions, and supporting post‑investment management, credit control and work‑outs to preserve capital and drive impact, with limited senior support.

Highly successful IAPs have fundamental investment and credit analysis skills, apply sound business judgment, engage credibly with senior stakeholders and investors, and manage complex, fast‑moving processes. IAPs play a key role in investor client relations as well as directly and indirectly leading junior team members. They are self‑starters, feel a strong sense of ownership of their work and have excellent team, leadership and interpersonal skills.

Key Responsibilities:

Deal origination

• Build and maintain a network of deal sources within investor supply chains and the ESD/SME ecosystem that regularly introduce high‑quality, mandate‑aligned opportunities into the fund’s pipeline. Lead Fund marketing initiatives, including representing the Fund at internal and external networking events, SME open days and conferences.

Deal evaluation

• Manage a pipeline of potential investments at different stages of the screening process and support team members in managing their pipelines. Direct team members in crafting high level investment thesis and, together with financial evaluation and investment structuring, motivate transactions to the rest of the deal team. Build strong relationships with founders of early‑stage companies.

Project management

• Executing all of the above within a strongly project‑managed work process is essential.

Investment process improvement

• Embrace the ethos of continuous improvement in identifying and driving initiatives to enhance or re‑engineer existing processes to increase efficiency in the deal‑making process.

Investor Relations

• Support the Fund Head in investor client relations. Lead investor Operations Committees and support the Fund Head by owning the deal‑making reporting at investor Steering Committees and Fund Board meetings.

Deal execution

• Plan and execute commercial and financial due diligences with multiple workstreams.
• Undertake focused research and analysis as part of the due diligence process to understand the growth potential of a small business.
• Analyse historical financials and conduct financial modelling, affordability and credit analysis to structure the funding.
• Review team outputs and prepare high‑quality investment reports.
• Build strong rapport with the Investment Committee and successfully present investment opportunities to them.
• Closing: Managing the process of:
• Drafting, negotiation and execution of legal agreements ensuring they accurately reflect the approved term sheet.
• Effective transaction hand‑over process and on‑going collaboration with the Portfolio Management team.
• Governance and record keeping leveraging team member support.

Teambuilding

• Develop Investment Associates and Analysts through coaching, mentoring and training on technical topics.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• At least a graduate degree, preferably with a technical and/or quantitative emphasis (finance, engineering, accounting, law, etc).
• An MBA, CA(SA), CAIA or CFA degree would be advantageous.

Experience:

• 5+ years across the full deal lifecycle, with a bias toward debt/credit investing or lending to SMEs (origination through to recovery, exit or write‑off), or in Tier 1 corporate finance/business consulting with balanced strategy and operations exposure.
• Other experience, especially within Enterprise & Supplier Development (ESD), development finance or impact investing focused on early‑ and growth‑stage SMEs, and within industrial or mining supply chains, will add significant weight to the application.