Runner-up position no loss for Ikusasa
Robert Owen of Ikusasa Environmental said Engen Pitch and Polish offered their emerging company a platform to educate people about their cause.
MBOMBELA – Robert Owen of Ikusasa Environmental said Engen Pitch and Polish offered their emerging company a platform to educate people about their cause.
Owen’s Mbombela-based company was voted as the runner-up during this year’s national entrepreneurial workshop and competition programme. The glittering final was held at The Venue in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg on Thursday November 8.
“The Engen Pitch and Polish programme gave us a platform to inform more people about our cause. Although I was the runner-up, I made valuable contacts and potential business partnerships. Currently we are growing our business in a sustainable and organic manner. In the future, we hope to have more teams working on invasive alien plants that will be led by team leaders who worked themselves up through our projects,” Owen elaborated.
Ikusasa Environmental focuses on mapping and taking inventory of invasive alien plants (IAP) and then removing them over a sustained period.
Owen said IAPs have a massive impact on South Africa’s valuable water resources, using an estimated 1,44 billion cubic meters of water per year. He said his company focuses on training and providing skills to local community members in the areas that they work in, to be able to safely and sustainably address this problem.
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“Currently we are working on a project for the Department of Environmental Affairs. We are providing training to 14 participants from the Mankele community through the National Resources Management Programme,” added Owen.
This year’s Engen Pitch and Polish national entrepreneurial workshop marks its ninth successive year.
Thus far the programme has helped over 11 000 entrepreneurs to improve the way they pitch their business concepts to potential investors. The programme is sponsored in partnership with Engen Petroleum, Nedbank, Raizcorp and Caxton Local Media.
Allon Raiz, founder of Raizcorp and the brains behind the Engen Pitch and Polish concept, said a mistake that is commonly made by entrepreneurs is using the same pitch to potential investors and to potential buyers.
Grace Govender, head of Nedbank New Business and sales support for the relationship banking division, said they chose Owen as a runner-up because his environmental business is doing important work by combating invasive plants.
For his effort, Owen pocketed R30 000 in cash. This is in addition to the R6 000 he won as the Mpumalanga winner.
