The inaugural E Squared Start-Up Pitch aimed at Allan Gray Fellows looking for funding to turn their side hustles into scalable ventures was held in October.
Start-up Founder Pitch is a low-touch program curated specifically to provide growth capital funding to Allan Gray Fellows who have built early-stage entrepreneurial ventures alongside other full-time work and is offered in a less structured venture support model than the Pathways programme with E Squared.
We gathered as a community in Johannesburg and online to support the pitching teams as they presented to a group of four independent judges. 14 teams pitched and seven were awarded funding to scale their ventures. Congratulations to the following successful participants who were granted access to funding and advisory support from E Squared Investments to a total value of R200,000 (with a maximum of R30,000 in non-financial backing).
Over and above this, there is the further opportunity to receive matched funding of up to R250k, for third-party funding raised elsewhere.
Congratulations to these winning pitch teams:
- Musa Maluleka – Disktjie
- Alexandra Miszweski – Novita Biotech
- Thando Hlongwane – Isiqalo Farming
- Mashokane Ramusetheli – Four One Wine
- Mlingani Matiwane- Umbane Energy
- Dimpho Thepa – 1982 Brewing Company
- Khanya Papu – Lighthouse Education
Our independent judges are careful to evaluate on business merit and not the polish of the pitch and we hope that everyone walked away richer for the advice they were given about their businesses, whether they were awarded funding or not.
We look forward to seeing what this kind of funding can do to accelerate these dynamic businesses.
Apply for a future Start-Up Founder’s Pitch, to be held twice a year in future.
