The investors and the entrepreneurs must take a developed mindset towards the robust and growing startup ecosystem of South Africa. The recent studies and surveys point towards the booming ecosystem of the startup culture of South Africa, and the investments in early-stage startups and the angel investments has almost been doubled in the last few years.
The local startup ecosystem has thus experienced a high entrepreneurship spirit and emerging phase in the business industry of South Africa. In the last five years the country has given birth too many such startup companies.
Here is a list of top 10 innovative startup companies with their time of joining the ecosystem:
| Company | Area of Business | Serves in |
| Hashtag South Africa | Technology | Social Media Integration |
| Tuluntulu | Technology | High speed and low cost broadband |
| Jobcrawler | Classified | Job search Engine |
| Spottm | Technology | Safety based social network to connect with neighbors |
| Hippo | Technology | Website development and comparison |
| Edge Campus | Education | E-learning and training |
| Gust Pay | Technology | Mobile Payment and wearable tech |
| sBubble | Security | To link security chip device to child’s clothes and connect with parent’s mobile |
| Smart Toy Club | B2C | Educational toy manufacturer for kids |
| The Artery | Business | Promoting art talent in South Africa |
THE INCUBATORS OF THE ECOSYSTEM:
- Investors are taking a chance on South Africa and are helping early-stage startups who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity. This funding can be augmented with the guidance, networking, and functional expertise that experienced investors bring to the party, and can be channeled through incubators and accelerators.
- The government of South Africa is also assuming a greater job in developing the nation’s startup ecosystem. They are keeping a track on business-unpleasant Labor Laws, Intellectual Property laws, and the general simplicity of working together in South Africa, conceivably putting resources into new companies/reserves, and giving more tax reductions to new businesses/private ventures.
- The government is also helping the startups be being less demanding concerning consistency and duty and giving the business some space to get off its feet without stressing over all the formality by either that of finance re-appropriated bookkeeping and consistence administrations.
TOP 5 START UPS TO LOOK UP TO:
Yoco: Yoco enables small business and entrepreneurs to securely accept payment through its integrated card paymenyt. Katlego Maphai, Bradley Wattrus, Carl Wazen and Lungisa Matshoba are the founders of Yoco and the company was formed in the year of 2013.
Mama Money: The mobile payment startup was founded 0n the year 2015 by Raphael Grojnowski and Mathieu Coquillon. This platform helps the migrants and the unbanked population to transfer money securely using mobile devices.
Libryo: This legal tech platform is based in Cape Town and was founded by Peter Flynn, Garth Watson and Malcolm Gray, three South African entrepreneurs in 2016. This platform offers its users a real time update and information at any time and anywhere.
Entersekt: authentication solutions used by global enterprises is offered by Entersekt to provide its customers a user friendly security product authentication. The founder Schalk Nolte and the company has raised investment from Silicon Valley recently.
Luno: A bitcoin wallet worldwide, the company was founded by Marcus Swanepoel, Timothy Stranex, Pieter Heyns and Carel van Wyk in Cape Town. The company operates in buying and selling of digital currencies.
SEGMENTS YOU CAN CHOOSE TO START YOUR VENTURE THAT ARE BOOMING:
- Solar energy
- Property
- Agriculture
- Automobile
- Fintech
- Healthcare Services
A QUICK GUIDE TO START YOUR VENTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA:
To establish a successful startup is not easy though it might be very innovative and creative. Here is a checklist for the startup founders and innovators to help them to start over:
- Go for renting co-working spaces rather than private space to save money for other requirements
- Take help of Mentors, incubators and startup consultants to make a good business plan
- Always count more investment and less gain in the first few years of starting up the venture, though focus upon saving as much as you can
- Attend as many networking events as you may for extensive business connections and acquaintances.
About Author / Author Signature
Shadab is a writer for Afrolingo, a professional South African translation and localization company. In a very short time, AfroLingo has developed a reputation as a reliable and expert provider of interpretation and translation services in South Africa. AfroLingo works with thousands of direct clients and over 100 MLV (multi-language vendors) providing contracted interpretation services.
