Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) invites companies with a R20 million annual turnover to join its JSE Enterprise Acceleration Programme, which aims to support medium enterprises to scale up through growing market share, accessing funding, and improving their competitiveness.

Potential candidates must be founder-led, entrepreneurial South African businesses in operation for at least two years.     

The JSE’s Director of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Vuyo Lee, says “The JSE’s objective is to enable medium-sized companies to leapfrog and propel themselves to being large enterprises. The programme avails resources to shorten the timespan for transition whilst driving growth and supports the country’s post-Covid-19 recovery plan”.  

The JSE’s Enterprise Acceleration programme launch follows the successful completion of a pilot project that exposed entrepreneurs to several training modules that equipped them with skills and expertise. The participants are now able to structure high-performance management teams, identify suitable vendors to partner with, promote their brands, and take advantage of new revenue opportunities. 

“The pilot enabled us to thoroughly assess the programme and identify the value we can add. We are now certain that our offering has an excellent value proposition and is sustainable,” Lee added.  

The pilot programme had five companies, namely: Mobiz, Signcraft Africa, Synatic, Saryx and Sendmarc. The majority are tech companies and have a high growth rate between 30% to 800% per annum. The JSE intends to recruit 15 companies to join the 9-month accelerator programme. As the programme gains momentum, the exchange plans to scale the number of participants.  

Furthermore, to deliver high-quality, high-impact training, the Johannesburg-based bourse is collaborating with Endeavor South Africa, an organisation that identifies and supports entrepreneurs. Through the programme, specialised local and international mentors will offer expert advice and coaching to the participants in an interactive environment through structured group sessions, master classes, and webinars. 

“The JSE Enterprise Acceleration Programme will contribute towards the creation of a pipeline of high-performing, profitable and employment-generating businesses. We see our role as nurturing and enabling growth in companies that are primed to scale up quickly – helping them access new markets and capital,” Lee said.  

The performance of participants in the programme will be assessed and measured using key performance indicators that will hone in on specific areas of business performance such as revenue growth, management skills, investor readiness, and market competitiveness. 

Also, the JSE requires the founders and management teams of these companies to embrace diversity, including focusing on implementing broad-based black empowerment (B-BBEE), having women in their founding teams, management teams, and broader workforce. 

Regarding the challenge of accessing funding, the programme will leverage the JSE ecosystem to assist companies with capital raising.