Grindstone and Nasper labs have come together to reduce gender disparity, and help women with small and medium-sized businesses to get more investments. Grindstone; a 9 year old accelerator and Naspers labs; a youth force program partnered together to execute the Grindstone X programme structured for the accelerator.
Reasons For The Exclusive Accelerator
African women own 40% of Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) but have access to only 1% of venture capital funding (VC). Research states that firms established by women make a higher profit compared to men which cost sub-Saharan Africa an amount of $95 billion annually. Due to the difficulties talented South African women face, the introduction of an accelerator has helped reduce gender disparity, and also invest in women with SMEs to stand firm on their own.
Grindstone X programme is structured for entrepreneurship development. It is a South African development focused to assist women SMEs in having fundamental requirements like professional data, resourceful networks, funding to be recognized, elements of training, corporate advisory, coaching, mentorship and extra investable. It is a cohort programme set to last for three years and each cohort for one year. The total of 30-women-led SMEs will be supported for the three years. That is, 10 of the best women-focused South African SMEs will be enlisted each year into the programme.
To have an effective impact, Grindstone will be giving opportunities in hiring Africans, blacks, Indians, youth, disabled and residents with little or no affluence.
Keet Van Zyl Opinion On The Accelerator
Grindstone Partner, Keet van Zyl said, “There is so much untapped female entrepreneurial talent in South Africa, and we need to get creative in how to unearth this at scale. Value-adding partnerships between innovative corporations such as Naspers Labs and programmes with a successful track record of engineering start-up growth such as Grindstone focus efforts on tailored interventions for founders that positively impact on their business’s metrics.” The impacts include having plans; the readiness to be funded, connections, coaching from exceptional coaches, including support from both the Grindstone and the Naspers labs. Business support Like structured gap analysis, a new strategy; go-to-market strategy, financial valuation, data population evaluation, understanding of the company value system.
