SweepSouth secures R10 million from top SA venture capitalists
SweepSouth, the on-demand home cleaning services company, today announced it has secured R10 million in new funding. The funding comes from the Vumela Fund, as well as from its existing investor, Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen’s firm. The Vumela Fund is capitalised by the First Rand Group and the Jobs Fund and managed by FNB in an alliance relationship with Edge Growth.
Last year the startup completed a series seed funding round from a team of top tech investors, led by Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen’s firm Newtown Partners and including Pule Taukobong’s Africa Angels Network (AAN) and Polo Leteka Radebe’s Identity Development Fund (IDF).
Co-founder and CEO, Aisha Pandor says “As we expand we can offer so many more work opportunities.” SweepSouth has created thousands of job opportunities in the last few months for women, the vast majority of whom were unemployed, resulting in over 100,000 hours of cleaning being completed over this time. (See also: SweepSouth founders on the biggest lessons from their Silicon Valley accelerator experience)
8 jobs every company will be hiring for by 2020
A report published by the World Economic Forum, “The Future of Jobs,” highlights the changes that the job landscape is expected to undergo over the next few years, the report predicts that there will also be certain occupations that are more in demand.
They include data analysts, more specialised sales people, product designers, human resources and organizational development specialists, computer and mathematical jobs. (WEF Forum)
South Africa’s billionaires have lost $3.4 billion in the past two months
The Forbes Africa’s 50 Richest people list in November 2015 reported that South Africa’s six billionaires were worth a collective $23.35 billion. Only two months later and they have lost a total of $3.4 billion. African Rainbow Minerals founder Patrice Motsepe and Aspen Pharmacare founder Stephen Saad have lost their billionaire status with their net worth dropping to $200 million and $300 million, respectively. (Forbes)
African women to watch in 2016
This year is predicted to be a big one for African women. Making the list of African women leaders focused on business are: Linah Kelebogile Mohohlo, governor of the Bank of Botswana; businesswoman Isabel dos Santos of Angola, Nialé Kaba, the first female minister of economy and finance in the Ivory Coast and Wided Bouchamaoui president of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts and the face of Tunisia’s economic re-emergence and democratic maturation. Also on the list are South Africa Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela and Jeannine Mabunda Lioko, adviser to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president Joseph Kabila on the effects of sexual violence and child soldier recruitment.
