This Women’s Month, SME South Africa’s ‘Breaking the Funding Glass Ceiling’ Series, unpacks the funding challenges women entrepreneurs continue to face, explores the innovative ways women entrepreneurs are financing their businesses AND celebrates the funding successes that have helped women build innovative and impactful businesses.
To commemorate Women’s Month 2020 SME South Africa has launched the ‘Breaking the Funding Glass Ceiling’ series to shine the spotlight on the funding challenges women entrepreneurs on the African continent continue to face, as well as celebrate the funding successes that have helped women entrepreneurs to build innovative and impactful businesses.
As part of the Women’s Month 2020 coverage, SME South Africa will share the funding journeys of four women entrepreneurs who are behind some of the country’s most bankable, scalable and future-fit businesses, which will be available for download as part of the Female Entrepreneurship & Funding case studies.
Click to download your FREE copy of the Female Entrepreneurship & Funding Case Studies
The featured women entrepreneurs are:
Salamina Mosese – Sorele Media (Film & Media)
Mosese is the co-founder of Sorele Media, a film and TV production house based in Johannesburg, which she launched with long-time business partner and long-time friend, Stephina Zwane.
“When the idea for Baby Mamas was born, we knew it had to be a cinema-quality product, and that necessitated us looking for external funding. We knew we were ready because we had already made a 90-minute feature, and that we had the capacity to deliver if we were supported by the traditional film funders.”
Stacey Brewer – SPARK Schools (Education)
Stacey Brewer together with co-founder, Ryan Harrison, shook up the traditional model of schooling and started SPARK Schools – a network of primary schools – in response to the growing opportunities that became available to fix a struggling education system through creativity and innovation.
“We had to raise seed capital to start SPARK Schools. Unfortunately starting a school requires a decent amount of capital, and we had to raise funding from angel investors.”
Tlalane Ntuli – Yalu (Financial Services)
Yalu is a digital insurer that’s looking to disrupt South Africa’s multi-billion rand insurance industry with its innovative credit life insurance offering.
The company was founded by Ntuli together with Nkazi Sokhulu.
“We knew from the onset that the business would require quite a lot of upfront investment from an investor who not only could afford it but one that also has a mandate beyond just quick investment returns.”
Mukundi Lambani – Ambani Africa (Edu-tech)
Ambani Africa is an African language content platform for young learners. The platform which was launched by Lambani uses Augmented Reality to gamify the African-language curriculum for early childhood learning.
“Ambani considered getting external funding approximately six months into developing the product. We knew we were ready to look for funding when our product was near completion and we had something to present to potential investors and it was no longer just an idea.”
Click to download your FREE copy of the Female Entrepreneurship & Funding Case Studies
Download the ‘Women Entrepreneurs & Funding’ Case Studies to find out:
– The impact of business funding on their business growth.
– How they navigated the challenges they faced during the application process.
– Their advice for other female entrepreneurs.
Click to download your FREE copy of the Female Entrepreneurship & Funding Case Studies
Join the Women’s Month 2020 conversation online via:
Twitter: @SMESouthAfrica
Facebook: SME South Africa
Instagram: @sme_za
LinkedIn: SME South Africa
