Company Announcement - The LaunchLab Ideas Programme’s bi-annual Pitching Den has kick-started on participating campuses in the Western Cape; Stellenbosch University, the University of the Western Cape, and the University of Cape Town thanks to support from Alchemy-A, a Technopark-based technology accelerator started by EMSS, and Business Partners.

The contest is open to all aspiring entrepreneurs from student and non-student communities.  It is an innocuous platform for aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas and stand a chance of winning their share of R50,000.  The final judging event will be hosted at the Nedbank LaunchLab in Stellenbosch on 6 May 2015.  Experienced entrepreneurs, academics and representatives from the local investor community have been selected as judges and will determine the winning ideas. 

“We want to create opportunities that expose bright entrepreneurial minds. LaunchLab’s Pitching Den is a great platform for aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs to test the viability of their business ideas and to gain access to a valuable entrepreneurial network,” says Philip Marais, the Chief Executive Officer of LaunchLab. 

Participants enter their business idea by doing an informal pitch that is video recorded. Although any business idea can be pitched in the Pitching Den, the LaunchLab is putting out a personal challenge for aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch ideas in one or more of the LaunchLab’s new focus areas: Payments & Big Data, Paid Media, Clean Technology, Agricultural Technology and Education Technology.  Entrepreneurs with winning ideas will win seed funding and incubation support services like mentorship and space. 

This Pitching Den running at SU, UWC and UCT is a collaborative effort to promote entrepreneurship among their respective students. “Such collaboration enhances the trust of industry and the government to invest in our entrepreneurs and their businesses.  When we take hands to jointly look after our emerging business leaders, we can achieve far more than pursuing smaller individual efforts and create much stronger networks and results. Consequently, we will attract the best students and researchers to the Western Cape, supporting it to become an innovation region in which our own spin-off companies will flourish,” says Anita Nel, CEO of Innovus, the industry interaction and innovation company of Stellenbosch University.

According to Charleen Duncan, the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UWC, university collaboration to drive student entrepreneurship is essential in order to make a positive contribution to economic development in South Africa.  “At UWC, we understand the importance of being active participants in building the entrepreneurial ecosystem.  This contest is an opportunity for us to spark entrepreneurship amongst our students and to actively create the next generation of job-creators,” Charleen adds. 

Even though the Pitching Den will take place at universities, the programme is not only open to students, but to everyone. Don’t miss this opportunity to make your business idea a reality - book your pitching slot today to stand a chance to be one of the winners.

According to Marcus Gowransky, the Secretary General of the Commerce Student Council at UCT, the Pitching Den provides a platform for students to further develop their careers and personal growth.  “The Commerce Student Council values its partnership with LaunchLab. The Pitching Den is an amazing opportunity for students at UCT to showcase their business ideas and to further develop their entrepreneurial skills,” says Marcus. 

The pitching will kick off at UWC and UCT on 14 - 16 April 2015 and then at Stellenbosch University on 21 - 23 April 2015 at the Nedbank Launchlab.  The final judging will be hosted at the Nedbank LaunchLab on 6 May 2015.  The general public is welcome to join the final pitching event. 

For more information on the LaunchLab’s Pitching Den or to sign up, visit www.launchlab.co.za /events or email signup@launchlab.co.za. Follow the LaunchLab on Twitter @thelaunchla and like the Facebook page www.facebook.com to stay in touch with the latest news and updates and to read more about the companies in the LaunchLab.