Durban ideal place to start tech firm
BEING selected as one of the six World Economic Forum 2017 Top 5 Female Tech Breakthrough Entrepreneurs in Africa, Darlene Menzies said Durban was the perfect place to start a technology business.
“I am a Durbanite through and through and am passionate about our city. Durban is an affordable place to set up a tech business and while I travel a lot to Johannesburg for business, I always say I go to Egoli and bring the gold back to Durban,” said Menzies on the sidelines of the conference yesterday.
She started her online business, FinFind, in 2015, which she described as the “Tinder of SMEs”, and which matches lenders to SMEs and start-up businesses.
“I have a relationship with USAid, an organisation which had done research on the challenges faced by new entrepreneurs. They found that one of the main blockages was accessing finance. There is a lot of money in South Africa to lend but the issue was to match up the two. I took the findings of this research and created the platform. We have already had more than 100 000 visits and have 62 000 users,” she said.
It has also saved the lending institutions time and money because they previously had to pore through thousands of applications for finance, whereas now they only get targeted leads. “Our service is free to entrepreneurs as we are sponsored by the Department of Small Business Development,” added Menzies.
She said her selection had led to a whirlwind week at the forum.