Total SA has concluded its 2016 leg of the Total Startupper of the Year Challenge in which innovative start-ups won a share of the total prize money of R1.2 million.
The 2016 leg, which was the third iteration of the challenge, kicked off in October 2016 in SA and 33 other African countries.
SA's Startuppers of the Year have gone through an intensive nine-month programme during which they were trained, mentored and coached by some leading institutions, mentors and coaches.
Speaking on the conclusion of the 2016 programme, Tshilidzi Ramuedzisi, innovation and corporate affairs manager for Total SA, says: "It has been a long journey for the Startuppers to get to where they are and as is the nature of entrepreneurship - the journey is far from over.
"I believe that going through the last nine months of training, mentorship and coaching has readied them to handle these coming milestones in their stride with courage of their conviction. That is what this entire programme has really been about - to help arm these movers and shakers with an arsenal of tools and resources that they can tap into to grow their businesses, improve their lives, improve the communities within which they live, and contribute to the economy of South Africa."
Total SA says with the monetary prize came mentorship sessions with reputable business personalities from the African business landscape, business coaches from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and a training programme with GIBS that saw them build their own capacities in running their business ventures.
The panel of judges went through 437 entries across various industries and picked three winners.
The first winner was ConnectMed, a Gauteng-based business venture that brings technology and health together. It is the brainchild of Oyena Zwelijongile Gwebityala, Melissa McCoy, Smisosenkosi Skosana and Sekeitto Allan-Roy.
The solution is an online telemedicine platform designed particularly for African communities. It connects certified doctors with those in need through video, text and machine learning-based tools. The offering is low cost and high quality and is accessible to those in need.
ConnectMed could not be launched in SA due to legal restrictions, so the entrepreneurs decided to launch in Kenya where this was possible.
The other winner was Nkazimulo Applied Sciences from KwaZulu-Natal. The business venture led by Bathabile and Roderick Mpofu assists high school learners with science education by helping them gain a closer relationship with scientific concepts.
The venture creates chemistry kits with 52 different experiments for safe use within a home environment. The experiments in the kit are safe to do at home and help learners apply their minds to sciences within everyday life situations, linking back to the high school curriculum.
Senovate in Mpumalanga was the other winner. Senovate is an innovation company founded and run by inventor Themba Sehawu. Sehawu developed a fruit picking machine that allows farm workers to pick fruit without having to elevate themselves. The machine picks, prunes and places fruit in a harvesting bag - all in one go.
On 16 May 2016, a representative from each winning business venture graduated after a three-month training stint with GIBS in Illovo, Johannesburg.
"As the year progresses, and as we conclude the 2016/17 leg of the programme, we are reviewing processes to better them for the next Total Startupper Challenge 2017, which we will be announcing in a couple of months," says Ramuedzisi.
The 2017/18 leg of the Total Startupper Challenge will soon be announced across the 34 markets within which it has been running simultaneously since 2015.
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