THE Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) plans to pump R400m into a govern ment initiated fund to support women-owned enterprises, trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said last month.
It brings the total mobilised for the project to R500m, fol lowing the recent pledge to the Isivande Women’s Fund of R100m by Old Mutual and the trade and industry department (DTI). The contribution by Old Mutual and DTI marked the first phase of the project, while the IDC fund would be chan nelled into the second phase, expected to be rolled out later this year, he said.
The fund would provide loans at concessionary rates to women enterprises that could otherwise not qualify for loans from banks.
Old Mutual contributed R50m to the Isivande Women’s Fund, bringing to R300m the support the company had com mitted to economic transforma tion over the past 12 months, MD Paul Hanratty said. "The target market for the fund in cludes formally registered en terprises that have been in ex istence for two or more years and that are at least 60% owned by women. The staff profile should comprise at least 60% women, of which 75% should be black. The staff complement should also include people with disabilities."
Funding will be split during the first year of operation, with 60% going to periurban areas and 40% to rural areas. Loans will range from R30000 to R2m, with a maximum repay ment period of five years.
"To be eligible for these loans, the businesses must have a two-year track record at least and be operating according to a sustainable business plan," Hanratty said.
The minister said a number of educational seminars would be held throughout the country as part of promoting and mar keting the fund.
The fund comes after Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa launched a separate R350m venture capital fund to help innovators in SA in the global technology arena.
Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa said its R350m venture capital fund would boost SA’s entrepreneurial climate and was a vote of confidence in SA’s ability to produce innovation of an international standard.
Hasso Plattner is co-founder and chairman of global software giant SAP. He also owns the Fancourt golf estate in George and is a past winner of the Cape to Rio yacht race.
Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa aimed to invest in and manage a portfolio of invest ments with a unique innovative offering either based on the business model, product offer ing or underlying technology.
The fund in SA will be head ed by Andrea Böhmert, who has helped to prepare early-stage technology companies for exter nal investment for the past three years.
She said investments would be mostly in businesses such as "telecommunications, mobile applications, media and soft ware, as well as clean technol ogy investments such as renew able energy, energy-saving con cepts and similar business seg ments in early stages of their de velopment, with a focus of their activities predominantly in SA and other emerging markets".