The Durban Chemicals Cluster (DCC) Business Accelerator held their annual “Dragons’ Den” event at The Pearls in Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, 2 November 2022. In authentic Dragons’ Den style, 13 up-and-coming young, black-owned enterprises presented their businesses to five ‘Dragons’ vying for the opportunity to not only walk away with on-the-spot cash prizes but also commercial opportunities to supply the Dragons, seed capital for their businesses and an opportunity to be mentored by the “best” in the industry.
Open to all black entrepreneurs with budding ideas and established SMMEs in the chemicals sector, the DCC Business Accelerator attracted 58 entries and the selection panel was hard-pressed to whittle these down to the final 28 candidates.
These qualifiers were then invited to the Accelerator’s one-day capacity-building workshop held in Durban on 18 October 2022. In a highly interactive session, the qualifiers not only had the opportunity to network with leading business people and learn from their experiences, these experts also helped them fine-tune their business pitches. The top 13 pitches qualified for the second round of judging modelled on the “Dragons’ Den” concept and they did not disappoint!
According to Ravesha Govender, Programme Manager: Economic Development Unit at eThekwini Municipality, the pitches delivered on Wednesday were remarkable and the culmination of many hours of hard work and investment by not only the SMMEs, but all stakeholders. “I’m blown away by the innovation and potential displayed by these businesses. This event reaffirmed that this initiative truly is driving localisation and enabling meaningful transformation within the local chemicals industry.”
KLIA Business and Technology Solutions walked away with top honours by winning the Best Business Case award and a cheque for R25 000. “It has been a privilege and honour to take part in this initiative and I look forward to the road ahead. Youth development is a real passion for me and this investment in KLIA will help me pass the baton on and reinvest in our future,” says Jason Govender, Managing Director of KLIA.
For many of the SMMEs, even if they didn’t win today, this is just the beginning. From here the supporting big businesses, represented by the Dragons, will come alongside them to deliver mutually beneficial partnerships that will involve individually curated collaborations of mentorship, potential investments, loans and contracts.
The additional R25 000 cash prizes went to:
Most Promising and Innovative Supplier to the Sector – API Solutions International, represented by General Manager, Sunthosh Balchund
Best Environmental Sustainability Solution – Dilex Purification, represented by CEO, Itu Rangaka
Most Diversified Business – AEIM Chemicals (Pty) Ltd, represented by CEO, Muzi Dlamini
The Dragons panel was made up of the lead firms; FFS Refiners, H&R, NCS, Sherwin-Williams and SAPREF. “This is one item on my annual calendar that I look forward to all year,” says Rudi van Niekerk, Regional General Manager of H&R Africa and Chairperson of the Durban Chemicals Cluster. “Member companies within the cluster are always on the lookout for high potential SMMEs to work with and the Business Accelerator makes it so easy to identify potential partners. Today was incredible – we met some high-calibre talent with brilliant business cases and I, for one, can’t wait to move ahead and start growing together.”
Kyle Ballard, Head of the Accelerator, says, “We are honoured to facilitate something that delivers meaningful results to both large and small firms within the industry. The Accelerator is consistently proving to be an effective way for large firms to find and develop their future suppliers, whilst also optimising transformation in their value chain. Similarly, it’s a privilege to be able to facilitate smaller enterprises and have a chance to unlock commercial opportunities with customers they would never be able to on their own. We witnessed magic today, and I am looking forward to doing it again.”
