New partnership links SA business with international prospects

SABLE Accelerator, a global resource network of expat South African consultants, investors and domain experts based in Silicon Valley and New York-based Powerlinx will provide a scalable way for South African companies, research centres and institutions to quickly identify and engage with strategic growth opportunities domestically and globally. The goal of the agreement is to more rapidly commercialise innovation, attract foreign investment and develop global markets.

Radical efficiency

By integrating the Powerlinx global business-to-business matchmaking platform into its www.sablenetwork.com web site, SABLE is applying disruptive innovation and "radical efficiency" to a business development and alliance building process that is typically complex, costly and time-intensive for businesses and new venture start-ups.

Initial pilot users of Powerlinx include a number of emerging growth companies from South Africa, including PHEMI, BusinessOptics, Delta Steam Systems, EcoloBlue, Cavendish Corporation (Kari's Malva Pudding), DisruptiveVision, MPULL, TimeToReply, CapeRay, Questr, Cognician, Cognisses, Korwe Software, Virtual Mobile Tech, GoMetro, SoftCopy, wiGroup, XMPro and InnovUS.

"We'll be empowering South African companies to be more self-directed and effective in global partnering and international market access by enabling them to seamlessly find, connect and act on verified opportunities to grow their businesses globally," noted Donovan Neale-May, SABLE's managing partner.

Easy to register

The Powerlinx sign-up process includes a short initial assessment online of the registrant's strategic objectives looking at areas such as business partnering, distribution development, new market entry, geo-expansion, product diversification, supplier sourcing, capital raising/financing, acquisition or sale, intellectual property licensing, or exit planning. This is done simply and easily online with question prompts.

It then algorithmically finds a set of suitable matches from its global database of 15 million profiles and submits them for review by the registrant. Once a registrant has approved a potential match, it facilitates the introduction. Initially, SABLE will offer the service on a free-trial basis for a limited number of members. Once registered, South African companies can continually track the status of their matches for all objectives posted, as well as be introduced to other companies seeking similar connections.

"Most companies, including the 230 million that make up the global business market, do not have an effective, trusted online platform to automate business partnering, alliance building and organic and inorganic growth," notes Doron Cohen, CEO of Powerlinx.

"They continue to work within inefficient, tedious and expensive processes for research and outreach, along with hiring of outside bankers and brokers, to fulfil their expansion goals. The company's cutting-edge platform completely transforms that process by enabling business owners and leaders to discover growth opportunities on a global scale."