Major Silicon Valley VC to deliver lecture in SA

A major Silicon Valley VC is set to return to South Africa, the country of his birth, to deliver a lecture at Stellenbosch University.

Roelof Botha made his name as one of the people fundamental to the early development of ecommerce payments system PayPal. He was named CFO in 2001, when he was 28.

When eBay bought out PayPal in 2002, Botha moved to Sequoia Capital, where he has remained ever since. He sits on the boards of companies such as Eventbrite, Jawbone, Mahalo, Meebo, Nimbula, Square, Tokbox, Tumblr, Unity and Xoom. He also sat on YouTube’s board prior to acquisition by Google.

The powerful VC will address students at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) on 10 April. His lecture will be reportedly be entitled “A view from Silicon Valley”.

The university will also grant Botha an honorary doctorate in commerce, “for his inspiring and pioneering leadership in the development of a safe and convenient payment system for the Internet, as well as for his imaginative and visionary entrepreneurial spirit in recognising, and developing through venture capital, the potential of new companies”.

Stellenbosch University is no stranger to tech, having recently teamed up with Stellenbosch municipality and major social player MXit to provide free Wi-Fi for the entire town.

Stellenbosch is also home to the World Of Avatar Group, which now owns MXit.