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BriteCap wins SAP pitching competition

1 Nov 2016

BriteCap, an innovative new platform for connecting job seekers and employers, took top honours at the first SAP Start-Up@RISE Africa event in Cape Town. SAP Start-up@RISE Africa is an initiative by SAP Africa and Barclays Africa's Rise Cape Town. It forms part of the Global SAP StartUp Focus initiative that began in 2012 and kicked off in South Africa in 2013.

Jacomien Van der Merwe, co-founder of BriteCap.

BriteCap provides an employer benefits platform that connects employers with blue collar workers. A platform for low- and medium-skilled labour to be more discoverable by potential employers with the aim of integrating financial products and services, e.g saving, micro-insurance and micro-loans which ultimately helps build financial resilience for low income communities in Africa. “Our vision is to break down the barriers to employment within the lower skilled labour market and help employers to find and retain financially healthy employees, increasing productivity and decreasing employee churn within this market sector”.

Other participating startups includes Beta Wealth, Fomo Travel, Aliens Moonshot, Revel8 and Zazu. The six startups were invited to pitch their business ideas to a panel of experts and potential business connections led by Nicole Anderson, a global expert in financial technology. The companies were invited to a comprehensive training session focused on how to develop prototypes using the SAP HANA Cloud technology on 21 October.

The qualifying startup was awarded an Apple Macbook Pro and will also receive a complimentary three-month membership to Rise Cape Town, a gathering space renowned for its innovative approach to hosting Africa’s brightest minds in the financial services technology industry.

According to Elke Simon-Keller, innovation lead at SAP Africa, the panel was immensely impressed by the innovation and disruptive potential of the startups that participated. "Each has the potential to boost the African economy and ultimately help the continent prosper. To date SAP has impacted over 3,750 startups across Africa. Through our collaboration with Barclays Rise, we hope to expand the forum into the rest of Africa and leverage our technology and network to create viable commercial opportunities for South African fintech startups.”

Warren Squires of Rise Cape Town emphasised the importance of these kinds of collaborations with other corporates as a mechanism to build and support the fintech ecosystem and showcase innovation across Africa.