South African Grindstone partners with Naspers Labs to Launch an all-female Accelerator Programme

The Grindstone Accelerator in South Africa has teamed up with Naspers Labs to introduce GrindstoneX, a new all-female accelerator programme intended to increase the investability, scalability, and exit-readiness of women-led firms.

Grindstone, a company founded in 2014 and jointly owned by Knife Capital and Thinkroom, focused on helping high-growth, innovation-driven firms achieve scale. The youth development initiative of the international consumer internet company and technology investor, Naspers, is called Naspers Labs.

The two organizations have teamed up to create GrindstoneX, which will annually identify the top 10 female-founded South African businesses and put them through Grindstone’s 12-month growth engineering program. This program evaluates each business based on its individual merits and then provides targeted interventions that allow the business to undergo business transformation and growth.

“South Africa has a wealth of untapped female entrepreneurial ability, and we need to find innovative ways to tap into it on a large scale. As stated by Grindstone partner Keet van Zyl, “value-adding partnerships between innovative corporates like Naspers Labs and programs with a proven track record of engineering start-up growth, like Grindstone, focus efforts on tailored interventions for founders that positively impact their business’s metrics.

“We are proud to extend an invitation to the talented female-founded start-ups in our nation to submit an application for the GrindstoneX accelerator program. We at Naspers Labs are dedicated to supporting the growth of microbusinesses, with a focus on those run by young women. By maximizing the potential of start-ups with female founders, we hope to advance the digital industry and the economy, according to Mapule Ncanywa, head of Naspers Labs.

Startups interested in applying to the GrinstoneX Programme in collaboration with Naspers Labs can do so here. The program is accessible to all South African citizens.