The Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) has launched a small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) support platform in collaboration with its membership network to assist small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis.
SAVCA is the industry body and public policy advocate for private equity and venture capital in Southern Africa, representing about ZAR171 billion (US$9.3 billion) in assets under management through 181 members across the private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) ecosystem.
As South African businesses struggle to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and associated economic challenges, the body has launched a support platform through which its members will offer free advice.
“We have called on our members to donate hours from staff who have capacity and specialist skills that companies may need, such as legal, accounting, supply chain and industry specific skills, to name a few,” said SAVCA chief executive officer (CEO) Tanya van Lill.
“SAVCA is proud to report that over 1100 hours have already been pledged to the platform thus far – a number we are certain will continue to rise over the coming days. SAVCA will facilitate all requests, matching them with support offered by members. This unique support network will therefore be available to all South African SMMEs – not only SAVCA members’ investee companies – that find themselves in dire need of support as a result of this crisis.”
The full list of support on offer is available on SAVCA’s online COVID-19 portal.
