Big impact on small businesses

Panelists from the launch of the 2025 Edge Growth Impact Report are all SME owners or founders who have benefited from Edge Growth support. From L-R:Luvo Tutani, Neo Diale, Lesego Holzapfel, Bongiwe Monakedi, Paul Pummer.

A year of measurable growth, resilience and innovation for South African SMEs despite ongoing economic volatility was highlighted in Edge Growth’s annual Impact Report, officially launched on Friday in Johannesburg.

As outlined in the report, SMEs form the backbone of economies worldwide, making up 90% of all businesses, with an estimated 400 million enterprises employing 70% of the workforce. Locally, SMEs are even more impactful, with more than 3.2 million micro, small and medium enterprises with a turnover estimated at over R5 trillion annually. Local small businesses employ an estimated 13.4 million people and contribute 40% of national GDP, provide 87% of total employment.

Under the theme ‘Impact by Design, Data with Soul’, the 2025 Impact Report highlights how Edge Growth’s purpose-driven programmes and data-led solutions are empowering South African SMEs. The report blends strategic insights with human stories, showing how entrepreneurs, families, and communities are achieving growth and transformation. Since launching over 18 years ago, Edge Growth has seen SME development as a movement, not just a business. More recently, the company has embedded this more intentionally into their measurement approach.

“This year reinforced a central truth at the heart of Edge Growth’s philosophy: impact is not just about numbers; it is about people. Behind every job created is a family with renewed stability. Behind every rand of revenue growth is an entrepreneur who has built a business that delivers essential services or creates opportunities for others,” says Susan Moloisane, chief executive at Edge Growth Solutions.

Key highlights for Edge Growth over the past year, across both their Solutions and Ventures businesses, include R2.44bn in assets under management and R1.75bn in capital deployed to SMEs. Small business within the Edge Growth ecosystem have benefitted from over 25% average revenue growth and among the more than 1,000 SME beneficiaries, more than 90% are black-owned, including 31% that are owned by black women. Since inception, over 14,000 total jobs have been created, with over R3.7bn in cumulative SME revenue earned.

“Our purpose has always been to grow small businesses, create employment and drive sustainable change,” says Dan Hatfield, Edge Growth CEO. “We remain a social purpose before we are a company and we are committed to designing impact with precision, measuring it with rigour and ensuring it delivers real opportunities for entrepreneurs to thrive.”

Underscoring these results is Edge Growth’s Impact Centre of Excellence, a company-wide initiative built on the idea of a ripple effect, where one action spreads out to create lasting change. By unifying data, strengthening governance, and making impact measurable, comparable, and deeply human, the full potential of impact can be unlocked, ensuring outcomes far beyond immediate results.

Some examples of the tangible benefits SMEs have gained through tailored support and guidance include Moedi Wines, a black female-owned brand, that through participation in the SME Growth Exporter Programme, achieved 878% revenue growth and established a U.S.-registered entity for export.

Following Edge Growth’s venture debt investment of R25m a year ago into Everlectric, this Pretoria-based greentech company grew their monthly recurring revenue from R1.4m to R1.7m. Residential and commercial cleaning solutions company, Monabo Hygiene Services, used Edge’s Vumela Fund to secure a major University of Pretoria contract, creating jobs and generating R750,000 in monthly revenue growth.

These are just three of the hundreds of small businesses that Edge Growth has supported. Despite the ongoing challenges for SMEs in South Africa, opportunities are abundant, particularly when businesses receive mentorship, strategic planning, financial management, compliance, digital adoption, and funding readiness support.

“For the first time in our 15-year history, we’ve seen a large majority of the businesses that were looking for funding in certain programmes actually get funding. That’s a real win because it shows how bringing together investment readiness, developmental support and finance can unlock the opportunities SMEs have been asking for all along,” says Hatfield.

Edge Growth is a leading SME development specialist and Venture Fund manager, specialising in developing small businesses and creating jobs and real transformation by connecting corporates and entrepreneurs, growing SMEs by addressing their key constraints: Access to finance, markets and skills. Our offering consists of three services areas, designed to achieve maximum Impact:

• ESD strategy for corporates and building SMEs in their value chain
  
• Investing in and growing SMEs through fund management
  
• Scaling businesses to full potential through accelerator programmes

Go to www.edgegrowth.com for more information.