Rudolf qualified as a chartered accountant with PWC in South Africa. After a short stint in London with PWC up to 1987, he joined Rand Merchant Bank Limited (RMB) in the Corporate Finance division, which included the bank’s private equity activities. In 1992, he was seconded to RMB Asset Management to assist with the takeover of the recently acquired asset management business of Momentum Life Limited. Here he gained valuable insight into the traditional asset management industry.
In 1993, RMB acquired a joint controlling interest in Aegis Insurance Limited, a broker-aligned non-life insurer, where he was seconded to as Deputy Managing Director in 1994.
As RMB representative, Rudolf has been involved since the start in the development and growth of Outsurance as an active non-executive director. Outsurance is currently the dominant telephone/internet-based personal lines insurer in South Africa.
In 1996, on his appointment to the executive committee of RMB, he was responsible for starting the first venture of the RMB group into the retail banking industry. RMB acquired First National Bank Limited in 1998, leading to the formation of the FirstRand Limited group. He was appointed to the FirstRand Limited’s executive committee, taking responsibility for mortgage lending and private banking in the group. Board positions included First National
Bank, Aegis and Outsurance. Rudolf also served on the RMB Private Equity Investment Committee up to 1998.
After leaving the FirstRand group at the end of 1999, Rudolf formed Treacle Private Equity
(Treacle) with two partners. Treacle Fund I raised ZAR 226 million in 2000, and Treacle Fund II raised ZAR 463 million in 2005. At Treacle, Rudolf has been involved in numerous investments and has served on the board of Sourcecode Technology Holdings Inc, Senwes Limited, ERP.com Limited and Securedata Holdings Limited.
Rudolf was the Treacle investment principal that led the investment into Sourcecode in the early 2000s when it was pre-revenue as a software developer. He was closely involved in Sourcecode’s international expansion – into Singapore and then to the USA with three rounds of fund raising: first with Azure Capital (US$5m) in 2004, then with FTV in 2007 (US$11m), and lastly with Francisco Partners in 2015 (US$158m).
Treacle Fund I achieved a realised annualised IRR after costs and fees of 34%, and Treacle Fund II achieved a realised annualised IRR after costs and fees of 16.7%.
Rudolf relocated to Mauritius in 2011. He presently serves, inter alia, on the boards/investment committees of:
- Outsurance Insurance Company Limited in South Africa
- Sourcecode Technology Holdings Inc in Seattle, USA
- Denham Capital’s African mining platform (Tremont Master Holdings) and its portfolio companies
- Alphamin Resources Corporation, a listed TSX company
- One Thousand & One Voices
- Novare Africa Fund PCC
- Atlantic Leaf Limited, an AIM listed company.
Rudolf is a South African citizen and is married to Alouette with 3 children.