The South African venture capital sector is gradually maturing and through tax incentives like Section12J, a significant amount of money is now available for investment in promising young technology businesses. The question that is constantly being asked by funders is “Where are the most promising disruptors to invest in?”
Decusatio– the consultancy assisting entrepreneurs tackle the twin challenges of “Access to Finance” and “Access to Markets” – joined by transaction advisory specialists Addison Inc. identified the following 6 technology start-ups as businesses to watch at a recent presentation at Leaderex in Sandton:
OUTvest:
Robo-advisors are exploding globally and disrupting the asset management industry with technology allowing investors to take more control of how and where they invest. OUTvest CEO Grant Locke presented their robo-advisor solution and highlighted their latest innovation by setting up a savings plan with a sophisticated Endowment product incorporated in it, inside of 5 minutes on his mobile phone.
SME Snapshot:
On a mission to map the South African economy and provide real-time insights into the sector, SME Snapshot CEO Tyronne Nel presented this powerful tool for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can not only develop powerful dashboards and reporting for their businesses but can do peer group comparisons around key metrics like profitability and sector growth.
Crayon:
The war for South African talent is real and Derrick Carolin is equipping high-growth businesses in the fields of technology, marketing, financial services and hospitality with the tools to win this war. Crayon reinvents the recruitment journey by introducing personality, grit and trait profiling upfront to match roles to the best-suited candidates. They aim to reduce hiring mistakes via a standardised, transparent process that informs both the employer and candidate in a data-rich, yet fun, way.
Envision-E-Pay:
“How do you create trust between strangers?” asked Envision CEO Terence Naidu. With the rise in popularity of e-commerce, transactional risk becomes a major issue for those who are parting with their hard-earned cash. As the only South African escrow service provider registered with both the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and Payment Association of South Africa (PASA), Envisionit E-Pay will ensure that you and your business can trade with complete peace of mind.
MoneyWorks Financial Services:
Every year, thousands of small and medium sized businesses fail due to late payments. Thandeka Zondi, CEO of MoneyWorks Financial Services set out to solve this problem and developed a Digital Supply Chain Finance Platform. Having received an investment from one of the major banking groups, Zondi expects to be a pivotal player in the South African SME ecosystem.
Quick Consols:
Developed by accountants, for accountants, Quick Consols CEO Steven Auf developed a platform which takes the pain out of monthly financial accounting consolidations. With a local and international client base, Quick Consols provides your finance team with a powerful tool for consolidated income statements, Balance Sheets and Cash-flow statements.
Guy Addison from Addison Inc. said: “With a significant amount of money going into the South African technology sector through incentives like Section12J, we anticipate increased corporate activity including mergers and acquisitions and we look forward to being part of this process and growing the South African ecosystem.”
“It has been really encouraging to watch these South African entrepreneurs gain traction over the past 6 to 12 months. They have put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes and instead of focusing on raising capital, have focused on finding clients and you can’t help but admire their entrepreneurial spirit. ” concludes Decusatio founder Marc Ashton.
