Innovation. What does it look like? It is one of those relative, unquantifiable words. For Standard Bank and its partners involved in the Kasi SME Summit, innovation takes on various forms and sizes.
The yearly Kasi SME Summit has gone national this year, and the 2025 edition took place in Durban at the Urban Space Events venue. It brought together entrepreneurs from across the country, including the seventeen finalists for the infamous and highly popular Kasi SME Pitch Challenge.
The Kasi SME Pitch Challenge was charged with energy as each participant had three minutes to deliver their pitch. From cleaning products and clothing that utilise circular fashion, to record labels and portable showers, the event was a testament to the creativity and engineering abilities developed across the country’s townships.
The competition was tough.
After the judges deliberated for a few minutes, the winners were announced.
First Place Winner: Cloudy Deliveries (Western Cape) 1st Place – R200 000
The journey from provincial to national rounds was an exciting experience for Colin Mkosi. “I was very nervous when the winners started to be announced, but I was so relieved to hear my name.”
He represented Cloudy Deliveries, a delivery service built on a similar model to the most popular scooter delivery services. What makes Cloud Deliveries different is that it is deeply rooted in the community and uses a network and tools that most potential drivers and clients already have: a bicycle and WhatsApp.
“The idea came to me when I was sitting at home studying. I wanted something from the shop, but I also didn’t want to go there myself, so I thought it would be great to call someone to your house, give them a list of items, they go to the store to get them and then come back.”
Mkosi says that bicycles seemed like the efficient option. “In our communities, a lot of people use bicycles to go to work or move around the community.”
To make this system run smoothly, Cloud deliveries recently built a WhatsApp bot where you send a hello and it responds to ask you for your list, address, and form of payment. The bot will take all of this information and send it to an available driver who then accepts and completes the delivery.
“We decided to use WhatsApp instead of an app, because people in our community already use it and this platform is pre-installed on most phones.”
Currently, the business serves Langa and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape.
Second Place Winner: Uku’Hamba (Gauteng) 2nd Place – R100, 000
Sibongile Mongadi calls herself a STEM innovator. With a background in engineering, she is attempting to solve one of the biggest challenges that often goes unresolved: access to prosthetics among low-income patients.
“A gum infection led me to my dreams,” she says. “My doctor referred me to the local hospital to get an X-ray even though I was cured of my gubs, because they wanted to see what the cause was for that infection.” She recalls how curiosity was sparked on that day when an amputee was present in the waiting room. “It provoked me; It forced me to put myself in that person’s position and think about their situation.
“I understood that there is a lack of resources, skills and access. There are not enough prosthetics for people, especially for low-income households.
“The head of prosthetics at that hospital even admitted that not all hospitals have the capacity to produce these devices.”
Mongadi turned to 3D printing and scanning technology with easily accessible materials. The materials include recycled water bottles and a product made from maize plants, so it is even eco-friendly! This makes it more affordable for families who need to support a family member in obtaining a prosthetic.
Third Place Winner: Keiskamma Hygiene Services and Projects (Western Cape) – R80 000
Hygiene isn’t about washing your hands and doing laundry. It goes so much deeper and ties in closely to overall health. Hygiene is at the core of Keiskamma Hygiene Services and Projects and highlights the support that individuals may need to keep up with good hygiene practices that give them dignity and support their health.
For Lusapho Njinge, founder of Keiskamma Hygiene Services and Projects, winning means more than just money to expand his business; it means improved brand awareness and the opportunity to educate more people about hygiene.
“If I have improved brand awareness, this will help me expand my business by buying more advanced pest control machinery, adding two more brush cutters and employing two to three full-time employees, making my services more accessible and service delivery quicker,” Njinge shares. Once he achieves this, he will be able to engage more in marketing and educate people about the importance of hygiene.
He has noted how there are risks that the communities this business serves are not always paying attention to. From pest control to deep cleaning furniture that captures dust and dirt, creating an environment that risks disease and health complications, his service combats this issue.
Njinge’s journey has been one of improving skills, expanding knowledge and working with the community towards understanding the importance of hygiene for overall health.
Fourth Place Winner: Ariel Robotics (KwaZulu-Natal) – R70 000
Self-taught in coding and electronics, Landile Mable from Ariel Robotics won for his inventory tracking drone technology. Ariel Robotics is not his first business, nor his first experience with warehouses. “We started this business based on previous experience I had. I worked in the supply chain for a school project, and I saw some of the hassles they had with stock taking and inventory management,” Mable says. “I also had a passion for drone technology. I thought why not use my engineering skills to build that?”
Mable recalls that after coffee with a friend, his friend simply asked how much he needed to fund his business. “I said R8000, and he became my first investor.”
This enabled him to build his first two prototypes, which opened the door to more pitch competitions and prize money. Mable even had the opportunity to compete on the global stage, taking first place at the 2024 AIM Startup Competition.
Fifth Place Winner: Sky Drop (KwaZulu-Natal) – R50 000
“In the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, we have a serious issue with water, so I researched other ways that we can produce clean water,” says Nomcebo Nzimakwe, founder of Sky Drop. “Through my research, I learned that there is eco-friendly technology that you can use to produce portable water through atmospheric water generators.
“I bought the machines from a company in Johannesburg that was a distributor of them
With us right now, we are expanding our business to develop a solar-powered prepaid atmospheric water refilling station, so we will be piloting our first machine from October 2025 in Gamalakhe near Port Shepstone.”
The reward money from this award will be used to set up this.
