Cilliers Steyn

Cilliers Steyn is a South African finance executive whose career spans more than three decades in auditing, corporate finance and telecoms infrastructure. He completed his articles/internship at Theron du Toit (since absorbed into PwC) in 1991, then held a series of financial roles including Internal Auditor at state defence group Denel, Financial Manager at Pretoria Metal Pressings (a Denel division), and Manager of Business Planning and later Manager of Corporate Finance at steelmaker Iscor (now ArcelorMittal South Africa).

Steyn joined Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) and spent roughly 17 years with the group. CIVH is a Black Economic Empowerment investment holding company with a long record in technology-sector private equity, majority-owned (about 57%) by JSE-listed investment company Remgro. At CIVH he served first as Financial Director and then as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from around 2011, a period during which he was credited with raising approximately R2 billion (about US$250 million) in funding for investment into Dark Fibre Africa and other group portfolio companies.

Effective 1 July 2016, Steyn moved from CIVH CEO to become Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), the open-access fibre-network builder that is one of CIVH's flagship operating companies. He succeeded Thinus Mulder, who had been promoted from CFO to CEO. Incoming CEO Mulder described him at the time as having "a keen understanding of DFA, having been with Community Investment Ventures Holdings, our holding company, for 17 years," citing his "extensive corporate finance experience and proven leadership skills."

Steyn continues to be associated with the CIVH/DFA/Maziv structure, where his work centres on group finance and capital-raising for large-scale fibre infrastructure rather than early-stage venture or angel investing.

• Operates within a corporate / private-equity investment vehicle (CIVH), not as an independent angel — his "investments" are group-level capital deployments into telecoms infrastructure companies.
• Sector conviction in fibre and open-access networks: CIVH's strategy is built on owning and building fibre-optic infrastructure (Dark Fibre Africa for backhaul/enterprise, Vumatel for fibre-to-the-home), reflecting a long-term, capital-intensive infrastructure thesis.
• Capital-raising orientation: his standout track record is mobilising large institutional funding (~R2bn while at CIVH) to fund network rollout — the value-add he brings is balance-sheet structuring and funding, not small seed cheques.
• On joining DFA he framed the opportunity around market timing: *"It's an exciting time to be officially joining DFA as the growth and adoption in fibre infrastructure deployment … is accelerating in South Africa."*