Three entrepreneurs were the lucky winners of the Keetmanshoop MatchMe2Funding event, hosted at the Moth Hall September 20-23. All businesses walked away with valuable insight into their business, exposure to investors as well as financial and business support services.
MatchMe2Funding is an Impact Tank initiative that aspires to address the challenge of access to entrepreneurship training and financial resources for startups throughout Namibia by facilitating a nationwide matchmaking event. The program will engage and train a total of 200 startups in 10 selected towns across 5 geographical areas by the end of the year with the goal of matching entrepreneurs with potential funders. The initiative is in partnership with Startup Namibia, financially supported by the GIZ, with Nedbank as an exclusive banking partner.
Our first town on the MatchMe2Funding journey was Keetmanshoop. 26 chosen entrepreneurs that had successfully gone through the shortlisting process attended two days of entrepreneurial training that was followed by a pitch day event. The training included topics such as entrepreneurship basics, marketing, business formalization and finance. The judges for the event comprised of Johannes Kisting from the Ministry of Industrialization and Trade; Natacha Jimmy from the Youth Council; and Aina Amunkele, the Economic Development Officer at the Keetmanshoop Municipality.
Get to know our winners
Our first-place winner is the well-articulated Nazeem who has decided to combine both agriculture and aquaponics. The gentleman is eager and well educated in the field of Agriculture. Emilio Van Wyk, who placed second, on the other hand, is a young man on a mission. He has taken on coding car keys to track vehicles. Mariah Katjito was also a strong contender at the pitch event as she looked at opening a convenience shop that would focus on the daily needs of the Ileni Community with goods such as groceries, take away, fresh produce, prepaid electricity, airtime, and banking services. Mariah, who walked away with the third prize, wants to bring services to the community which are not easily accessible. “People need to take a taxi to town every day just to get their basic needs and that she saw the gap in the market and decided to fill it” she added during her pitch.
Let’s get you matched!
Are you an entrepreneur with an innovative business concept? Does your concept have high growth potential and the opportunity to scale? Check out our schedule of events and get in touch with a member of our team to see if your idea has what it takes to compete!
081 612 4071