In November 2011, these two organisations joined forces to develop the Business Accelerators initiative where 10 high-impact entrepreneurs would be selected with each to receive more than R250000 worth of business development support.
"It has been absolutely fantastic to screen these entrepreneurs through the last three months and see what kind of talent there is out there," says
Finweek editor Marc Ashton, adding: "What I really enjoyed about this initiative is the diverse backgrounds that these various entrepreneurs came from and the different stages that their businesses were at."
Pavlo Phitidis from business acceleration firm Aurik adds: "Any entrepreneurial journey gets lonely and through this most of us hit glass ceilings or we get to a point where we can't see the wood for the trees. This happens at all stages of the businesses development from start-up to growth. The right business development support that focuses on the entrepreneur and the business makes all the difference in keeping focused and consistently building momentum to accelerate your business growth. This, in addition with the support of big business, the public and government is what we need to grow South Africa through entrepreneurship and we look forward to achieving this to turn these 10 entrepreneurs into symbols of success and opportunity."
The winners of the 10 entrepreneurship bursaries are:
FOX Innovations (Pty) Ltd t/a FOXit - Aldo van Tonder | 
Galeboe Professional Services - Cecil Thokoane | 
Kushesh Trading cc - Ashley Mulligan |
Refer-X Technologies (Pty) Ltd trading as iSign.pro - Gareth Ochse | 
Rexus Trading Pty Ltd - Allistair Balutto | 
Richard Bentley Consulting Pty Ltd - Richard Bentley |
Studio 05 House of Fashion (Pty) Ltd - Cecilia Mungofa | 
Destiny Cuisine - Titus Makoro |
"We set ourselves the goal of doubling the revenue of these 10 businesses in the next 2 years and I think it is going to make for some fantastic and inspiring content for South Africa to follow," concludes Ashton.
Full profiles of the entrepreneurs will be available in the
Finweek edition which hits shelves on 9 March 2012. Keep following
Finweek on Twitter and Facebook to find out more about the people behind these businesses as well as their hopes and aspirations. Corporate sponsors keen to partner on this initiative may contact Finweek editor Marc Ashton to discuss opportunities.
MBS Aircon and Refrigeration - Mabaka Monakgisi |
Firestring (Pty) Ltd – Tal Nathan |
