The South African startups taking part in the Grindstone Accelerator grew their revenues by an average of 36 per cent, created 27 new jobs and increased business fundamentals by 33 per cent, becoming more efficient in doing so.
Launched by Knife Capital in 2013, Grindstone engineers growth for South African innovation-driven entrepreneurs, with previous cohorts including the likes of ticketing solutions provider Quicket, augmented reality animation and gaming company SeaMonster, and transport data company WhereIsMyTransport.
Twelve South African startups have been taking part in the fourth edition of the accelerator over the last year, seeing a significant growth in revenues, and growing their teams. Geospatial data analytics company Locstat Systems achieved the highest growth across all metrics, winning the Grindstone prize of ZAR100,000 (US$6,500) to spend on an international business development initiative of their choice.
The year-long Grindstone programme takes companies through an intensive review of their strategies and provides them with the necessary support to build a foundation for growth in becoming more investable, sustainable and exit-ready.
“We initially set out to prove that by offering the right guidance and support to coachable entrepreneurs, we can engineer growth on a significant and sustainable scale,” said Andrea Bӧhmert, co-managing partner at Knife Capital.
“The fact another cohort of Grindstone companies have experienced significant growth and investment while increasing their business fundamentals clearly demonstrates that it is possible. We are extremely proud of how this cohort of entrepreneurs embraced the Grindstone learnings from all our value-adding partners and we built lasting relationships and had fun in the process.”
