Akro is a company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses. We offer events, venture funding and consulting services, and we have a painfully practical attitude towards entrepreneurship.
In association with:
UCT Leopards Lair 2021
Permission granted use name “Leopards Lair” by North West University
Calling all University of Cape Town student entrepreneurs!
Sponsored by:
Judges
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Anton BaumannImvelo Ventures, First prize sponsor
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Jason BaselQoorio
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Precious Mdlalose IDF Capital
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Bridgit EvansExecutive Director: SAB Foundation , 1st Prize Sponsor for Impact Entrepreneurs
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Magda WierzyckaBraavos Investment Advisers
R250 000 in prizes
Thank you to NWU Leopards Lair for giving permission to use the name Leopards Lair for this competition for this year.
Join us live 5 October 12:00pm – 15:00 pm to see the Leopards in action prowling around student startups.
These finalists have been in front of these high quality judges, pitched and are now in the finals.
Magda Wierzycka – co founder of Sygnia Asset Management and Braavos – will not be available to judge due to unforeseen commitment
Jason Basel - co founder of EduOne, Akro and currently Head of Growth with Qoorio
> More Info
Jason is the Head of Growth at Lithuanian knowledge sharing company Qoorio, a platform that enables people to book each other to share advice.
He was formerly the CEO and co-founder at EduOne (acquired by Fundi Capital in 2020), a company operating South Africa's largest career guidance platform and a leading innovator in education funding services. The ed-tech company has ranked among Fast Company's Top 25 Most Innovative companies in South Africa, and boasts over 3 million users.
In addition to his role at EduOne, Jason also co-founded Akro, a pioneering venture-builder company that owns and operates a network of businesses on a mission to facilitate grassroots growth of true entrepreneurs and scalable startup businesses. Among the Akro network is Akro Accelerate, a super-early stage accelerator backed by Africa's largest venture capital fund, the SA SME Fund, and which pioneered the space with SA's first fully-remote, township-based program alongside Imvelo Ventures and the Technology Innovation Agency.
In 2017, Jason was named one of 200 Leaders of Tomorrow from a globally-selected pool of innovators by the St Gallen Symposium in Switzerland. Jason was also chosen as one of Investec and the Department of Science and Technology's 'most promising entrepreneurs in the field of education', representing his country at one of the world's largest tech events, Slush, in Helsinki Finland.
Outside of his professional life, Jason is an intrepid adventurer. He loves wandering into the wild North of Scandinavia in the midst of an icy winter, the coastlines in Southern Africa in the peak of summer or the sheering mountains of the Alps whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Anton Baumann – co founder of Imvelo Ventures, First prize sponsor
> More Info
Anton is a Co-Founder of Empowerment Capital Investment Partners.
Empowerment Capital specialises in setting up and managing Corporate venture Capital investment companies such as Imvelo Ventures, which has been set up by Empowerment Capital in partnership with Capitec Bank.
Before starting with Empowerment Capital Anton was the Managing Director of the National Empowerment Rating Agency and a partner at Transcend Capital, a boutique corporate finance advisory firm which specialised in M&A and BEE related transactions for large listed South African and multinational corporates. He also served as a Finance Director on the Board of ABP, the Association of BEE Professionals and in this role, he represented the entire BEE verification Industry to the Department of Trade and Industry.
Anton is a qualified German lawyer and also holds an MBA from the Berlin School of Economics.
11 Finalists Announced!
We provide a suite of mobile and web applications for fast, affordable, and more efficient blockchain-enabled financial services in low-tech environments for financial inclusion.
Join us 5 October 12:00 p.m. – 15:00 p.m.
Thanks to sponsors of pitching for Finalists IDF Capital
Social Innovation Ideation
Distinctly
The company aims to provide an online platform for consumers to order bespoke dietary shakes and juices. The platform will contain a built in questionnaire that asks the same types of questions that a dietician might, the user’s answers would be fed into an algorithm that would then recommend ingredients to the user that should be added to their shake/juice
Kwela Brews
Kwela Brews helps brewers of traditional African beer to brew easily and safely by providing an easy-to-use and low cost brewing machine
Social Innovation Ideation
Mandla Money
We provide a suite of mobile and web applications for fast, affordable, and more efficient blockchain-enabled financial services in low-tech environments for financial inclusion.
Mandla Health
Mandla Health is the community’s chronic health app. It is completely free and serves its users in English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans. It provides South Africa’s underserved communities empowering health information and tools.
Africanize
Africanize is creating a platform that allows food entrepreneurs who making a living selling food a viable business through content promotion and delivery support. For our end-users, we are creating a food delivery platform that is not bounded by distance or excludes certain areas.
Strapp
Our mission is to increase access to sustainable, community led ownership, providing a safe and central place to transact with others in your community.
Commercial Innovation Ideation
Bodyweight Athleisure
We want all people to feel comfortable enough to take their first steps to activity, in our plus- size athleisure brand.
InclusivePV
We offer energy consultation and Solar PV installation to township businesses.
Post Ideation
Nong Auto Systems
Nong Autonomous Systems is in the process of developing a fully automated hyper- personalised convenient store that offers an “in-and-out” shopping experience for its customers.
Fleeker Finance
Fleeker Finance is a digital credit card (mobile application) with affiliate stores which allows students to buy on credit on the affiliate stores backed by their financial aid, allowances, bursaries and other side hustles.
Yalo Hemp
Hemp Based Cardholders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Any questions you have will be answered.
Monday 6 September 17:30 p.m. sharp
Create a 3 minute pitch for your company / idea.
This needs to include the following topics :
1 Company Profile
2.1 Include name of the company , vision and team members
2 Problem Statement
2.2 Identify the pain points you are solving.
3 Target Market
2.3 Identify who experiences these pain points by segmenting your customers.
4 Solution Statement /Product
4.1 How are you making the customer’s pain their gains?
4.2 Outline each unique value proposition
5 Revenue Model
2.5 Identify how you will make money by presenting your revenue and cost structure
6 Competition
6.1 Identify your competition and how you aim to differentiate yourself from them.
On Pre selection Pitch day please note that you will ONLY have 3 minutes to pitch
Application form needs to be submitted for the application to be considered
A minimum of 7 slides and a maximum of 10 slides can be submitted.
3. Available to pitch on the 11th September, 25th September, and the 5th of October 2021
4. Be a registered UCT Student for 2021, or alumni from the last 3 years (2018 – to now)
5. Ruling by the Judges is Final and at the sole discretion of the Judges
6. By applying on the UCT Shark Tank you agree to receive Akro Capital Newsletter, which includes UCT Shark Tank updates among other Akro related updates.
As for the pitch, we need you to complete the application form. Click here to complete.
Although not necessary to have your pitch attached at time of application, please note we want you to ensure you have your pitch deck ready for Round 1 of Pre selection process.
Eligibility for Test Funding
- Student has developed and researched a socially innovative idea.
- Requires funding for further development and pilot to refine business model
Eligibility for Startup Funding
- Student/alumni has made significant steps towards product development, and can
Simon Shelton – Project Lead – UCT Investsoc
Mthoko Magubane – COO – UCT Entrepreneurs Society
Mandisa Makubani – Unlimited Experiences
Joel van der Schyff – AgrilogiQ
Nicolene Schoeman-Louw – Schoeman Law
Precious Mdlalose – IDF Capital
Bridgit Evans – Executive Director: SAB Foundation
No worries, we are happy to have UCT student representation for one founder only.
Yes we have a separate category for Ideation to win R20 000. Please make sure you are still available for the Important dates.
No worries. Join us for a workshop 9 September online at 16:15pm where we will take you through a business model canvas. Register here
Yes as long as you were an alumni from 2018 and not before.