Anglo American South Africa Launches Startup Incubator Program Across its Operations’ Communities
Anglo American South Africa, a diversified miner, has started an incubator program through Zimele, its enterprise development division, with the goal of transforming 500 start-up firms in rural communities into viable businesses.
The program will primarily support women- and youth-owned enterprises in the North West, Limpopo, and Northern Cape regions near Anglo’s activities. The start-ups will also receive assistance from training organizations like TechnoServe and Summit and from the bank Absa.
Over the course of seven months, it will be made available in three phases per site, with 25 entrepreneurs participating in each round. In order to increase the viability of their firms, the program will offer aspiring entrepreneurs formal training, mentorship, and tools to assist them strengthen their business models, identify and engage target consumers, and test their products and services.
According to Larisha Naidoo, CEO of Zimele, the initiative was created to get entrepreneurs to move their business from zero revenue to commercially viable businesses. Naidoo recounts that the move will benefit the overall economic health of communities around the company’s mining and processing operations in South Africa.
“The programme was designed to get entrepreneurs to take their business from zero revenue to commercially viable entities that can improve the broader economic wellbeing of communities around the company’s mining and processing operations in South Africa,” said Naidoo.
Since 2018, Zimele and its partners have aided over 1 200 entrepreneurs in expanding their companies, gaining access to funding, and integrating into the mining and other supply chains. The participating companies often experience a 29% average increase in sales, which allows them to expand into new markets and generate employment.
About Anglo American South Africa
Anglo American South Africa provides raw materials needed to satisfy the rising consumer-driven demands of the developed and developing economies. These are made available through its portfolio of highly competitive mining operations and untapped resources.
The company’s employees identify new resources, plan and construct our mines, mine, process, move, and promote our goods to consumers throughout the world using the most recent technologies.
The company sees itself as the guardians of these priceless natural resources as a responsible miner of copper, nickel, iron ore, coal, diamonds (via De Beers), platinum, and other precious metals. It collaborates with primary partners and stakeholders to realize the potential value those resources contain for shareholders, the communities in which it operates, and the nations at large.
More than 18 years of in-depth corporate venture capital experience are incorporated into the Anglo Zimele concept. Without any help from the outside world or the general public, Anglo American alone planned and promoted this program. The investment in more than 200 supply chain-related businesses since Anglo Zimele’s founding in 1989 is a monument to its success and to the team’s dedication to enterprise development.