2020-2021: The years the resilient created opportunities
ProfitShare Partners exceeds R300m payouts to SMEs
3500 applications assessed via their Fintech process
In a world turned upside down, home-grown fintech ProfitShare Partners embarked on an ambitious campaign to #, providing R100 million in capital for an exciting SME initiative to help South African small businesses grow and create jobs.
The campaign started in mid-2020 and ran through to mid-2021. While the world struggled to come to terms with an unknown pandemic and small businesses took a knock as the global economy all but shut down, the ProfitShare Partners initiative put a massive R116-million into SMMEs, and facilitated economic growth opportunities they had never had fair access to.
With a number of exceptional stories generated through #GetSAWorking, the big prize every small business was after was R1-million in hot, hard cash for the small business that created the most jobs with the capital outlaid by ProfitShare Partners.
Following the successful campaign proudly created by ProfitShare Partners end story has been remarkable. Every small business was a winner, with new opportunities opened to them.
However, the company that came out tops and took the R1-million was IT firm, Rifumo Holdings, led by owner Thompson Mpenyane, which achieved the remarkable under trying circumstances.
In short, ProfitShare Partners helped Rifumo Holdings save 18 jobs they had and enabled it to hire another nine new staff members, taking the headcount up to 27 people, with another 14 new jobs pending.
In an overall roaring success, the campaign saw ProfitShare Partners pay out R116-million to its SME clients; creating a minimum of 300 new jobs; sustaining at least 500 existing jobs; and assisting 61 companies to complete 104 transactions.
Always say YES to success
Another campaign that required innovative financing as the key to reigniting South Africa’s SME sector was the Youth Employment Services (YES), run by Chief Executive Dr. Tashmia Ismail.
YES is a joint national initiative between business, government, and labour that aims to address the youth unemployment crisis in South Africa by providing 12-month work experiences to unemployed youth.
In its first two years, YES worked with over 1,365 South African companies to create more than 50,000 work experiences, which saw R2.8 billion ploughed into communities and the economy through youth wallets.
With its fast and user-friendly online application process, ProfitShare Partners’ impact on the SME sector while enabling corporates to create a more diverse, sustainable supply chain has been immense.
The partnership with YES and Life Healthcare ‘de-risked’ the ProfitShare Partners investment while giving the SMEs access to market in the form of a guaranteed order. This resulted in a group of seamstresses from Johannesburg’s townships landing a ‘life-changing’ order of maternity bags.
Thanks to a zero-cost facility of R600,000 from fintech SME funder ProfitShare Partners, the group could procure the materials needed to fulfil the order and repay the financial outlay on completion of the contract.
The partnership with YES and Life Healthcare ‘de-risked’ the ProfitShare Partners investment while giving the SMEs access to market in the form of a guaranteed order.
Dr. Ismail said innovative financing models like those of ProfitShare Partners are critical to enabling many SMEs to build their businesses and thrive, and a strong SME sector is key to building supply chains that help reset the country’s economy.
Success begets success
With the growing fintech gleaning local and foreign attention, ProfitShare Partners was also proud to have been appointed the official short-term funding service provider for the recently launched Abadali Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP), an initiative between J.P. Morgan and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC).
The Abadali Fund is expected to result in R2-billion worth of capital support through short, medium, and long-term finance over an eight-year period into the South African economy.
No doubt there will be more good news on this front as PSP heads into 2022.
As ProfitShare Partners reviews the projects it has been involved in from 2020 to this point in 2021, the opportunity afforded to SMEs is most striking, and the company is clear that the path ahead will continue to lead to prospects that generate wealth, jobs, and economic inclusion at scale.
Ends.
About ProfitShare Partners
ProfitShare Partners is a Fintech business that provides disruptive short-term capital solutions (from R250,000 – R5 million) and transactional support to SMEs who have no access to funding, no security, financials, or track record but have a contract or purchase order with a reputable company or government department. The company responds to applications within 24 hours, generates a term sheet within 48 hours, and pays out within 7 days for new clients – even quicker for existing clients. ProfitShare Partners does not charge interest. Instead, they share in the profit of the transaction with the SME. This is a high-impact growth tool for SMEs, which enables rapid growth without giving away equity.
Visit profitsharepartners.com
