Endeavor SA, CEO Circle to scale 10 black firms to R500m companies within five years

Endeavor SA has announced that it will partner with the CEO Circle to scale 10 high-impact black-owned firms into enterprises with a value in excess of R500-million within five years.

In a statement today (26 April), Endeavor said the initiative will leverage the procurement, financial and mentorship muscle of the CEO Circle, which includes business leaders from some of the largest corporates operating in South Africa.

Endeavor will oversee the process of identifying and selecting candidates from the applications received. Applications for the initiative will be open to all established black-owned enterprises with yearly revenues of R50-million or more, and with a five-year records of growing at yearly rates of above 20%.

Endeavor’s ScaleUP programme will form the backbone of the selection methodology

The organisation’s recently launched Endeavor ScaleUP programme will form the backbone of the selection methodology that will be used to deliver what Endeavor described as a “rigorous” selection process.

The selection process, Endeavor pointed out, will entail interviews, financial reviews and review panels by industry experts.

Successful candidates will progress to the CEO Circle panel where the inaugural cohort of between five to 10 companies will be chosen.

Companies selected for the initiative will receive a “personalised pathway”. This will help introduce them to capital providers and provide them with access to markets through introductions to key executives and procurement officers in select companies. In addition, the companies will also be matched to C-suite mentors and scale-up support.

Endeavor SA managing director Alison Collier will lead the search and selection project.

The organisation’s patron board member and Discovery CEO Adrian Gore (pictured above), in the same statement said the idea is to create a system selected companies would be matched with the appropriate set of shareholder companies and their respective supply chains.

“This is not a contractual obligation… we are simply asking for a top-down referral by our shareholders into these big corporates,” he added.

Featured image: Endeavor SA patron board member and Discovery CEO Adrian Gore (Supplied)