Raizcorp, the South Africa start-up incubator that has helped many South African start-ups, is launching in Zimbabwe and has partnered with Zimbabwean businessman Dr. Shingi Munyeza. Taking a startup from the “idea” phase to a fully fleshed-out company is a journey that’s often fraught with obstacles.
Zimbabwe has had a surge of start-ups in recent years, mainly due to the high rate of unemployment.
Dr Shingi Munyeza said on twitter that he had concluded and signed the first comprehensive enterprise incubator in Zimbabwe in joint venture with Africa’s largest enterprise incubator The incubator will effectively launch in Zimbabwe in March 2019
An incubator is set up to reduce the chances of failure of early-stage startups and it helps in the economic viability and growth of startups that it supports. Therefore, incubators are set up to create sustainable and strong entrepreneurial support infrastructure and enable young innovators and entrepreneurs to find the necessary support and resources to build successful startups.
Speaking to Penny Du Plessis, communications officer at Raizcorp, “Raizcorp offers business-growth and development programmes for entrepreneurs across all stages of the business lifecycle – from having a business idea to accelerated growth. Our development continuum has five stages: Promulgation, Ideation, Commercialisation, Incubation, Acceleration”
Incubators have proven to be invaluable for newcomers who have a great idea for a company but lack the connections and know-how to get it off the ground.
“Our programmes are designed to progress entrepreneurs seamlessly from one stage of the continuum to the next. Entrepreneurs can enter a Raizcorp programme at any point along the continuum and then move on to the next stages.” Penny Du Plessis added.
RaizCorp has helped nurture over 125000 start-ups. Founders apply to join its programme and are put through an intensive training process on how to launch and run a company. There are no membership fees for entrepreneurs to join a Raizcorp programme. Raizcorp engages with corporates, DFIs, mines and multinationals to provide bursaries for our entrepreneurs.
Startups have different gestation periods, for example a software startup would be able to reach the market in around 18 months, but a MedTech startup will require three to five years to enter the market, such comparisons are like comparing Tomatoes to potatoes.
