FNB Business Innovation Awards finalists announced

FNB Business has announced the entrepreneurs that have been shortlisted for the FNB Business Innovation Awards 2015, organised in partnership with Endeavor South Africa. The announcement follows an intense judging process where all the qualifying entrepreneurs went through a series of interviews by a panel of business experts.

“We would like congratulate the entrepreneurs that have been shortlisted for the final stage of the competition. Over the last eight months, the judges have interviewed some of South Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs and made tough choices to ensure that only the best candidates make it to the final round. The remaining candidates have demonstrated exceptional innovation and remarkable potential to scale their enterprises,” said Michael Vacy-Lyle, CEO of FNB Business.

Managing Director of Endeavor South Africa, Catherine Townshend says. “The depth of innovation among SA’s entrepreneurs is often understated and this process certainly brought some of the country’s amazing entrepreneurs to the fore. We believe that every business that went through this process will walk away with a clear sense of what they need in order to scale and create even more jobs.”

The entrepreneurs that will contest the final prize are:

• Sam Hutchison: Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Everlytic, a firm that uses advanced software to automate digital communication – from newsletters to invoices – across email, mobile and social channels.
• Petar Soldo and Tim Matthis: Co-founders of market research company, Genex Holdings. Genex couples traditional research methodologies with contemporary survey technologies to help companies develop product and enter new markets.
• Bruce Morgan: Bruce became the CEO of GreatSoft CRM in 2014, after providing leadership and mentorship to the Managing Director from 2000. GreatSoft CRM specialises in the development and implementation of profit improvement systems for high performance firms in Africa.
• Trent Rossini and Mike Renzon: Co-founders of InQuba, a company which offers real-time monitoring and management of customer experiences for organisations.
• Dov Girnum: CEO and founder of Merchant Capital, a company that provides working capital (in the form of cash advances) to the Small and Medium Enterprises.
• Andrew Cook and Andrew Burns: Entrepreneurs behind the success of Smoke Customer Care Solution, a company that enables continuous monitoring of service levels delivered in call centres, retail environment, online as well as every other customer touch point.
• Stacey Brewer and Ryan Harrison: Co-founded Spark Schools which offers blended education model by loosening the constraints found in traditional schools.

The winner of the FNB Business Innovation Awards will be announced on 4 June 2015. The overall winner will get an opportunity to present their business ideas at the prestigious International Selection Panel (ISP) in San Francisco later this year.