Watching his business grow

about R200,000 in credit card debt by placing large orders, while he was also fined in the early days for not having an importer’s licence.

With Silvertree onboard, he’s now getting professional assistance to help him with compliance procedures — such as auditing — and to grow the business, which currently operates in Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town.

“Pretty soon we’ll also be opening in other cities in SA and in the beginning of next year we’ll open a branch in Nigeria and some other African cities.”

Maseko also plans to design and make Aumax-branded watches.

Silvertree co-founder and MD Manuel Koser told the FM recently that Aumax “is a freak of nature that shouldn’t exist — but it does and in a good way.

“It’s such a pleasure to work with someone who had to go through hardships and who survived this kind of very fierce struggle of entrepreneurship and got where he got to through hard work, being smart and pure will … And now we can help him to scale up.”

Koser said at the time that Silvertree was searching for other companies ahead of its planned listing.

Like larger rival Naspers, it’s on the hunt for consumer-facing internet companies.

Launched in 2013, Silvertree generates annual revenues of about $40m. It bought online price-comparison platform Pricecheck from Naspers in

2015.

Silvertree expects to grow annual revenues to more than $300m by 2023, when it is targeting “a liquidity event, which most likely will be an IPO”.

Koser co-founded online fashion company Zando and panafrican e-commerce group Jumia, which is now backed by MTN, Goldman Sachs, AXA and other global firms.