Here is some more positive news for South African entrepreneurs looking for support in getting their ideas off the ground:

Established early-stage growth companies are due to receive a funding boost following news that Aurik Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd has secured access to a R100 million funding pool.

Aimed at early-stage businesses and focused but not limited to the energy, clean technology, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Funding may be provided in a mix of debt and equity and is available from a minimum of R5 million to a maximum of R10 million per investment.

“This fund is dedicated to early-stage businesses and includes both funding and direct commercial support as part of the deal. South Africa’s bright future depends on reversing the unfortunate situation where we see too few people becoming entrepreneurs and too many entrepreneurs failing,” said Pavlo Phitidis, CEO of Aurik Investment Holdings.

Early-stage businesses face the twin challenges of securing adequate funding and quality commercial support that Aurik hopes to help them overcome. According to Phitidis, “Typically, early-stage businesses are too young to qualify for venture capital and cannot afford consulting-based commercial support. This “skill and equity gap” has proven to be the death knell of many an entrepreneurial dream.

Phitidis added that combining angel funding and business acceleration addresses the major risks typically faced by early stage businesses and boosts the likelihood of entrepreneurial success.

As a Business Accelerator, Aurik partners with entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of early-stage businesses by providing a combined package of back-office support, business acceleration and angel funding, all before the venture capital stage. Business Acceleration is a new concept in South Africa and is better known in the USA and Europe. Since inception, Aurik has worked with 22 early-stage businesses and enjoyed successful acceleration outcomes.

The funding pool’s target is entrepreneurs running businesses not younger than two years and the entrepreneurs must have at least three years additional experience within their industries. Certain minimum turnover requirements apply while funding is conditional upon the conclusion of a back office support agreement, amongst other conditions.

On the structure of the funding pool, Phitidis explained that the fund is a draw down fund meaning the money is drawn down upon investment committee approval after the conclusion of a successful due diligence process.

Established in 2003, Aurik Investment Holdings is a Business Accelerator that interacts with influential private and public policy makers in order to create a socioeconomic environment conducive to accelerating the growth of early-stage businesses. Aurik partners with entrepreneurs of early-stage businesses to reduce risk and increase focus and direction to develop the business into an asset of value. By providing hands-on business support, back-office support and angel funding all before the venture capital stage, Aurik rapidly develops early-stage entrepreneurs into goal-directed business leaders able to successfully grow and manage their own businesses.

More details about the acceleration application process is available at www.aurik.co.za