Durban ‘is a good place for startups’

SELECTED as one of the six World Economic Forum 2017 Top 5 Female Tech Breakthrough Entrepreneurs in Africa, Darlene Menzies says Durban is the perfect place to start a technology business.

“I am a Durbanite through and through, and I 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 has 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 over 100 000 visits and have 62 000 users,” she said.

She said the WEF recognition proved a whirlwind week at the conference. “This provided an unprecedented platform and some outstanding opportunities to engage with leaders in government and business, as well as having one-on-one meetings with heads of multinationals and world- wide exposure,” she said.

At the close of the conference, Menzies was selected to appear on a five-seat panel on finance, televised on CNN, which was attended by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Darlene Menzies