The South African Breweries (SAB) has said it will invite 67 young South African entrepreneurs based in Johannesburg to pitch their startup idea for a total of 67 seconds during Nelson Mandela Day on Friday, 18 July in Braamfontein.
The firm adds that the successful pitches will gain access to an SAB funded programme comprising of business development support and stand a chance of winning grant funding in the form of seed capital.
Dubbed The Lean Jump, the initiative is a brainchild of SAB KickStart, SAB’s youth entrepreneurship programme; The Hookup Dinner (THUD), an innovative entrepreneurship networking platform; and Edge Growth, specialists in enterprise and supplier development.
The Lean Jump aims to instill a culture of entrepreneurship amongst young South Africans and expand SAB KickStart’s efforts to offer leading startup development support to promising small business; invest in the creation of a quality pipeline of entrepreneurs in core industries and sectors; develop and entrench a thriving ecosystem of support for the development of business ideas while bridging the enterprise development offering gap for startup businesses.
Successful pitches on Mandela Day will be provided with six months of virtual business mentorship as well as grant funding to invest in growing their business idea or business operations currently not older than 6 months.
Once they complete their 6 month business intervention programme, SAB KickStart will provide 10 successful candidates with an opportunity to participate in its youth entrepreneurship development competition. Successful businesses will also stand a chance to get a share of R300 000 as seed capital. The startups will also be assited with business development support services throughout the programme from Edge Growth.
