Stellenbosch University LaunchLab CEO Joshua Romisher
Stellenbosch University has appointed US social entrepreneur Joshua Romisher CEO of its LaunchLab business incubator.
From New York to Silicon Valley to South Africa, Romisher has traded a career in investment banking to help the university create innovative startups in South Africa and contribute towards solving some of Africa’s socioeconomic issues.
LaunchLab, supported by Nedbank, is Stellenbosch University’s startup incubator, founded for university spin-outs and other startups from the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Romisher plans to open up LaunchLab to companies across Africa this year, with his personal mission being ‘impact at scale’.
Romisher brings with him a decade of experience, primarily in debt capital markets at Credit Suisse Securities, in New York and San Francisco. He also helped to build Braver Stearn, an innovative trading platform, during the 2008 financial crisis. His banking career led him to San Francisco, where he helped grow a profitable unit of the bank.
He says trips to Silicon Valley peaked his interest in using capitalism to solve critical global issues, as it is a melting pot of the requirements to start a business, including experts and technical resources.
Romisher has spent the last six years launching businesses across ten sub-Saharan Africa countries, during which he raised more than $250-million in investment to fund startups.
He is passionate about helping millions of Africans not connected to the electricity grid. He previously served as CFO of a startup company that provided distributed solar energy for about 500 000 rural customers.
Romisher sees the challenges in South Africa as opportunities for entrepreneurs to rethink business and, therefore, the role of LaunchLab is to set the stage for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas, where they can be moulded into sustainable, life-changing businesses.
The lab offers critical services to companies, such as fundraising and talent sourcing, while entrepreneurs can focus their efforts on their products and customers.
Currently, 53 startups are under LaunchLab’s roof, while two of its incubated companies managed to declare dividends last year.