
Our team
The Crossfin team is experienced in investing in and managing technology businesses in emerging markets and has a proven track record of converting deal flow into well-structured transaction and profit generating technology businesses.
The team are active business partners and trusted advisors to portfolio management teams, which enables strong business growth with limited capital investment.
is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crossfin and has more than 25 years' experience investing in technology businesses across Africa, including the last decade focused exclusively on fintech. A Chartered Accountant (SA) with a background in corporate finance, his experience spans investment management, corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, and executive leadership at both operational and corporate levels. Dean has led the successful growth of Crossfin through a number of strategic investments and exits and continues to drive the group's expansion across Africa and internationally. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Lesaka Technologies and Independent Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Sanari 3S Growth Fund.
Anton Gaylard
Co-Founder & CXO
Anton Gaylard is the co-founder and Chief Exponential Officer at Crossfin. He holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) degree in Marketing and Economics from the University of Cape Town and has more than 25 years' experience in technology, retail, eCommerce and mergers and acquisitions across entrepreneurial and corporate environments. With a particular focus on fintech, payments, strategy and operations, Anton combines deep commercial, operational and transaction expertise to drive business growth, strategic partnerships and long-term value creation across the Crossfin portfolio.


Dean Sparrow
Co-Founder & CEO

Mark Hyslop
Chief Legal Officer
Mark Hyslop is the Chief Legal Officer at Crossfin. An admitted attorney, he holds Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees, together with a Higher Diploma in Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand. With more than 40 years' experience in commercial law, including over 37 years specialising in technology law, Mark leads the Group's corporate and transactional legal function. His expertise spans mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, commercial contracting and technology law, providing strategic legal support across the Crossfin portfolio.

Laura Cowan
Director & Finance Executive
Laura Cowan is an Executive Director and Group Finance Executive at Crossfin. A Chartered Accountant (SA) with more than 20 years' experience, she specialises in group financial reporting, consolidations, corporate transactions and financial governance. Since joining the Group in 2007, Laura has played an integral role in many of Crossfin's significant corporate milestones and is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the Group's financial reporting, audit processes and institutional reporting standards across the portfolio.

Edward Pitsi
Non-Exec Director
Edward Pitsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Infinite Partners, is Pretoria-born and raised. He holds a BCom, BCom (Hons) CTA and a Master’s in Finance from the University of Pretoria, is a qualified CA(SA), and later completed an Executive MBA at INSEAD. Edward co-founded Infinite Partners alongside long-standing colleagues Titi Sekhukhune and Tabane Matheolane, with whom he has worked closely for over a decade. Edward’s worldview was shaped early by his mother, a retired nurse whose work ethic and entrepreneurial side left a lasting impression, and his high-school accounting teacher, who introduced him to the CA(SA) path. His fascination with private equity was sparked in his final year of university after reading “Barbarians at the Gate” by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar.Edward is drawn to companies characterised by unique competitive advantages and sustainable market growth drivers, and led by entrepreneurs and managers who can shift gears, lead people, and execute with clarity. What motivates him is the tangible, real-world impact of building businesses and navigating the human side of leadership beyond spreadsheets. He values long-term partnership, world-class execution, and the ability to articulate a vision that people believe in and deliver against. Outside of work, Edward is a devoted husband and father, a lifelong sports enthusiast, with ambitions to pursue football coaching qualifications.

Roger Grobler
Non-Exec Director
Roger Grobler is a seasoned investor and entrepreneur with a strong track record in private equity, insurance, data science, and artificial intelligence. He is a co-founder and partner of the TRG AI Fund, established in 2018, where he led key investments in Crossfin, TymeBank, Channel VAS, and Vertice MedTech. In each of these companies, Roger works closely with management teams to leverage AI and data-driven strategies to enhance operational performance and value creation.
His earlier career includes pioneering actuarial pricing in the South African car insurance market in the 1990s and executing numerous investment transactions as a dealmaker at FirstRand. Internationally, Roger spent seven years in Australia, where he founded and served as CEO of Real Insurance, now a leading player in the direct insurance market and part of Hollard Australia. He also spent seven years in India, where he established and scaled Quantium’s operations into one of the country’s foremost big data and analytics firms.
Roger holds a Master’s degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Pretoria and is a CFA Charter holder.

Naomi Nethengwe
Non-Exec Director
Naomi is a principal and a founding member of Infinite Partners. She was instrumental in the acquisition of Crossfin by Infinite Partners and currently also serves on the boards of e4 and Cynk, where she works closely with the teams to drive the strategic direction of these businesses. Over the years, she has been involved in assessing various investment opportunities that could be a fit for Infinite Partners investors.
Prior to joining Infinite Partners, Naomi worked as a senior associate at Ethos Mid Market Fund I. Before that, she was an Analyst at Investec Asset Management focusing on value listed equities. She completed her articles through the Investec CA Programme where she formed part of various teams across Investec Bank. Naomi holds a Bachelor of Accounting (Honours) from the University of Pretoria. Naomi is a CA (SA) and a CFA Charter holder.
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David Bryant
Investment Principal
David Bryant is an Investment Principal at Crossfin with more than eight years' experience in investment management, corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. A Chartered Accountant (SA), he holds a Bachelor of Accounting (Honours) from Stellenbosch University. Since joining Crossfin in 2022, David has been involved across the full investment lifecycle, including investment evaluation, transaction execution, portfolio management, group strategy and exit planning, and has played a key role in several of the Group's strategic acquisitions, restructurings and exits.

Chantel van Loggerenberg
Group Financial Accountant
Chantel serves as a Group Financial Accountant, working alongside the Finance Executive to lead monthly and financial year-end reporting. Since 2021, she has ensured precision, compliance, and streamlined financial workflows across the group. Chantel holds a Bachelor of Financial Management from the University of Johannesburg.

Tshepo Dhlamini
Non-Exec Director
Tshepo holds a B Acc.Sci (Taxation Honours) from Wits and is a Chartered Accountant CA (SA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). He looks after deal sourcing, evaluation and execution as well as investment portfolio management. Prior to joining ARC, he dealt with Pan-African mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, venture capital, equity valuations, financial modeling, deal structuring and post investment monitoring and management.
Values
Empathy
We put ourselves in others’ shoes to understand their situation. This enables us to understand their problems and challenges and come up with solutions to these, as well as to understand their opportunities and find ways to help them exploit those to the benefit of all involved.
Integrity
Dependable
Respect
As people and organisations of integrity we choose to do the right thing even when there is a cost associated to this decision. We operate honestly and above board. We communicate clearly and directly, and we avoid political manoeuvring and devious schemes to achieve our goals.
We know our own capability and capacity and based on this knowledge we carefully make promises that we can keep. Then we keep them. We avoid surprises and in the exceptional cases where we are unable to keep our original promise, we communicate this honestly, clearly, and timeously.
We show respect for our stakeholders by valuing opinions and treating everyone as equals. We listen to feedback and assess needs and look to assist and support where ever possible. We employ fair tactics and respect the law of the land ensuring sound and reasonable business practices.
Partnership
We see our stakeholders as our partners – whether they be investors, portfolio members, team members, customers, or even our customers’ customers. This means that in every situation we create opportunities that benefit all involved and create agreements in which everyone shares fairly in the benefit created, in accordance with effort and value added.
Passion
We hire people who come with the batteries included. We make the effort to share our passion and we encourage and inspire each other to dream big and embrace those dreams with passionate action.
Visionary
We lead the African continent by envisioning better futures. Where there is vision, people can be moved from lives that are perishing in quiet desperation, to lives of hope, a future, and abundance. We dream big, share our dreams, build executable plans to make our dreams reality – and then we execute!
Engaging
We intentionally include people in our visions, dreams, passions and partnerships; inspiring them to engage their whole person in getting behind these. We help them discover, gain confidence in, and engage their strengths, allowing others to compensate for their weaknesses. This allows us to attract, engage, and retain the best talent in our industry, giving them a place to continually grow into their full potential.