Stellenbosch’s LaunchLab Pitching Den kicks off this week

It’s that time of the year again. Stellenbosch, South African-based LaunchLab is announcing its bi-annual Pitching Den which will be taking place at university campuses around the Western Cape.

Taking place at Stellenbosch University (SU), University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the University of Cape Town (UCT), the pitching competition is open to all budding entrepreneurs. This means that both students and non-students have a chance to win their share of R50 000.

Similar to last year’s Pitching Den, chosen entrepreneurs also stand a chance of securing seed funding and incubation support.

“We want to create opportunities that expose bright entrepreneurial minds. LaunchLab’s Pitching Den is a great platform for aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs to test the viability of their business ideas and to gain access to a valuable entrepreneurial network,” says Philip Marais, the CEO of LaunchLab in a statement.

Last year, five companies were recognised after which they were named the top of the crop. These include accommodation startup StelliesFlats, fire detection startup Lumkani, LinkedIn for the low-skilled labour force Workr, Specular which helps people who are visually impaired, and a monthly newspaper, called RivierNuus.

Read more: The Launchlab Pitching Den names its 5 startup finalists

“Such collaboration enhances the trust of industry and the government to invest in our entrepreneurs and their businesses,” says Anita Nel, CEO of Innovus, the industry interaction and innovation company of SU. She further elaborates the importance of creating strong networks in the industry:

When we take hands to jointly look after our emerging business leaders, we can achieve far more than pursuing smaller individual efforts and create much stronger networks and results. Consequently, we will attract the best students and researchers to the Western Cape, supporting it to become an innovation region in which our own spin-off companies will flourish.

The pitching will kick off at UWC and UCT on 14 to 16 April 2015 and then at SU on 21 to 23 April 2015 at the Nedbank Launchlab. The final pitching event will be held at the Nedbank LaunchLab 6 May. Should interested entrepreneurs miss the deadlines for pitches at UWC and UCT, they should do their pitches at LaunchLab in Stellenbosch. Click here for more details.