Pali Lehohla, former statistician-general; Thabang Mkhuma, technical advisor at 4IR MICT; Nobesuthu Ndlovu, director of SME at Old Mutual Corporate; Lincoln Mali, CEO of Lesaka Technologies; and Talifhani Banks, CEO of Analytics X and Spaza Eats.
Old Mutual SMEgo yesterday launched its second edition of the SMEGo Pitchathon, for businesses in ICT and financial services, offering a R4.2 million prize − an increase of over R1 million from the 2024 edition.
The 2025 initiative will see 14 businesses awarded R300 000 each towards their business needs. The launch was held at an event in Rosebank, attended by various stakeholders.
At the event, speakers said for technology to help solve South Africa’s socio-economic challenges − like unemployment, education and housing − the solutions that it enables must be scaled so that even women living in Soshanguve without access to data can find a job.
Nobesuthu Ndlovu, director of Old Mutual Corporate’s SME division, told ITWeb that technology can help solve these problems. She noted this is why Old Mutual developed SMEgo, a platform for companies to access business services, which is available on smartphones and as a web portal.
Old Mutual aims to support small businesses by being a partner to them through SMEgo, which provides access to services, such as HR management tools, billing and legal documents, said Ndlovu.
Entries for the pitchathon are open until 15 August and applicants need to provide a pitch deck, a valid B-BBEE certificate, proof of a minimum turnover of R500 000, and at least six months of trading history supported by documents like bank statements and contracts.
Old Mutual’s support of SMEs through SMEgo and the pitchathon aims to help create employment and solve SA’s socio-economic challenges, said Ndlovu. “We need a country with people who want to make it work. I want to live in this country forever.”
Small companies are the bedrock of SA’s economy, making up 91% of formalised businesses, providing employment to about 60% of the labour force and contributing about 34% of gross domestic product, according to The Banking Association of South Africa.
However, Old Mutual says in a statement that SA has one of the highest rates of small business failures across the world, as up to 70% of SMEs fail within the first five years.
Speaking at the event, Pali Lehohla, statistician-general of SA, said many small businesses fail because they don’t have access to funding.
He said SMEs need scale to help create jobs. “Those who give the [financial] support are friends, families and fools.”
SMEgo also provides companies an opportunity to secure funding, said Ndlovu. Old Mutual evaluates their eligibility by considering factors such as their transactional history, invoices submitted and paid, and contracts signed.
Lindiwe Shibambo, founder of Maid4U, was one of last year’s 10 pitchathon winners. She explained that the company was in danger of closing following the global pandemic, and is now close to launching an app that enables women to find employment and employees to vet domestic workers.
Shibambo said her experience as a domestic worker was the impetus for her business, which also provides training for people who come from, for example, Soshanguve, who don’t know how to use a microwave.
Maid4U used its winnings to hire developers to create an app, which is zero-rated, that will be available on Android and iPhone. The app has been designed “like a dating app” as it allows people to search based on specific criteria, noted Shibambo.
Ndlovu said Old Mutual wants to help create “an economy where we have a zero unemployment rate”.
Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released on Tuesday, showed that 95 000 fewer people had jobs this March than a year ago.
Old Mutual is partnering with other corporates by providing the SMEgo solution as a white-label software-as-a-service to them. Ndlovu explains that other companies, which she could not name, can also add their own offerings to the platform.
Lincoln Mali, CEO of Lesaka Technology, also speaking at the pitchathon launch, sees technology as an enabler of solutions that can be scaled to help solve SA’s “intractable problems” – such as the lack of education and housing, among others.
Mali said the technology solutions that will enable small companies are those that solve issues. “It’s not the tech per se; it’s trying to understand the pain point and solve that pain point.”
Click here to enter the 2025 OldMutual SMEgo Pitchathon.
