JOHANNESBURG - THE ENDEAVOR and SA SME Fund Local Scale Up (LSU) programme was launched yesterday with a focus on expediting the local and international growth of successful entrepreneurs who run high-impact businesses.
These are primarily tech-enabled businesses, built by experienced entrepreneurs, which scale quickly and outperform their peers, driving revenue growth and creating jobs.
The LSU is led by Endeavor South Africa, whose model is geared at helping scale high growth businesses locally and prepare them for the global stage. Endeavor operates in 38 markets and has more 2000 entrepreneurs and over 5000 mentors as part of its global network.
Being selected to be part of the LSU programme provides significant opportunities for local growth. Once they complete the LSU, these entrepreneurs may be chosen by Endeavor’s rigorous selection panel to become global Endeavor entrepreneurs, which helps catapult them onto the international stage.
Examples of companies that have been selected for the LSU include Voyc (www.voyc.ai), StructureIT (www.structureit.net), and Snode (www.snode.com).
Adrian Gore, the chief executive of Discovery and chair of the SA SME Fund, who spoke at the launch, said the South African economy and jobs market would reap the benefits if high-impact local entrepreneurs growth was accelerated and their reach extended.
Gore said it was a myth that big business could drive the job creation SA needed, saying that entrepreneurial activity was the only real sustainable job creator.
Alison Collier, the managing director of Endeavor SA, said: “We are seeing more and more South African tech enabled entrepreneurs successfully setting up their businesses and tech development teams in South Africa, and selling their solutions to the large international markets, including the US, Europe and Asia.
“The last year’s boom in remote working has only increased this opportunity for South Africa and it’s great to see local entrepreneurs capitalising on this.”
BUSINESS REPORT