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Ten South African startups have been selected to join Knife Capital’s 1st Johannesburg Grindstone Accelerator programme, a year-long startup programme with knowledge, networks and funding readiness.
The businesses will be taken through growth measurement, gap analysis and deep interventions designed to build a foundation for growth, transfer skills, create relevant business networks and help them go to market.
Knife Capital joined forces this year with the SA SME Fund and Deloitte to run the programme in Johannesburg.
“Johannesburg has many entrepreneurial programs so we didn’t know what response we would get. Receiving more than 400 applications has definitely surprised us and the quality of the companies has by far exceeded our expectations,” says Andrea Bӧhmert, Co-Managing Partner at Knife Capital.
“And with partners like the SA SME Fund and Deloitte and the support of FNB Business Banking, Webber Wentzel, the BillyBo Group and AWS, we are confident that we will be able to assist our ten selected companies to address their growth challenges and make them the next South African entrepreneurial success stories. We have a proven model, committed partners and great companies to work with, to once again prove that growth can be engineered,” added Bӧhmert.
The 10 successful candidates for the 2019 Grindstone Accelerator programme are:
- WizzPass (https://www.wizzpass.com/), a seamless visitor and contractor management system focused on removing and improving upon insecure, outdated paper and manual systems.
- LeadRobot (https://www.leadrobot.co.za/), a middle-of-the-funnel data analytics and marketing automation tool that uses AI to enrich, cleanse and predictively score incoming leads in real-time to empower sales and marketing teams.
- MSAT (https://msatglobal.co.za/) provides digital satellite and IP technology solutions to professional broadcasters.
- Marc1 (https://marc1.io/), an Internet of Things Point of Sale solution, providing physical retailers with some of the tools previously only available to their online peers.
- Liquid Gold, a company in the circular economy of sanitation with a unique waterless unisex urinal and nutrient recovery solution.
- Ashanti-AI (www.ashanti-ai.net), assist businesses in solving some of their biggest challenges using Data Engineering, Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
- [email protected] (https://excelatuni.com/), applications and online tools that assist Universities and funders with student selection, fund disbursement, reporting and success interventions.
- Crayon (https://crayon.jobs/), a talent-sourcing platform designed from the bottom up to reduce hiring mistakes via a standardised, transparent process that informs both the employer and candidate in a data-rich, yet fun, way.
- Lula (https://lulaloop.co.za/), an app that connects corporate commuters to private shuttles on their way to work.
- Farosian (http://www.farosian.co.za/), a specialist social media company which partners with businesses to better understand the complexities associated with social media, by generating social media screening reports.
