Calling all entrepreneurs – Pitch your way to over R1 million in prizes!
After a year-long intermission, South Africa’s most loved entrepreneurial pitching competition and workshop programme, Engen Pitch & Polish, is back! And it’s going to be bigger, better and digital!
Once again, the programme is hosted in partnership with Engen, Nedbank and Raizcorp.
Building on its previous success, the Engen Pitch & Polish programme will be a fusion of competition, mentoring and learning, with the audience enjoying a dynamic learning experience through the work contestants put into polishing their business pitches.
The new digital format will be streamed live on the Pitch & Polish website twice a week for seven weeks. The new format will reach a significantly wider audience than would be possible through the previous format, which consisted of physical events in eight towns and cities per year.
No matter where you live in South Africa, as long as you are connected, you can now enter the competition or watch and learn as 16 contestants battle it out for the ultimate prize.
Over four rounds of competition, 16 contestants will be whittled down to the final two.
The overall winner will walk away with prizes to the value of R1 million. This prize is split into R650 000 in cash paid out over two years as the winner achieves the business milestones laid out in the winning pitch, and a bursary of R350 000 for a full two-year, high-touch Raizcorp incubation programme.
The runner-up will receive R100 000 in cash and the second runner-up R50 000.
But there’s a twist!
This year’s Engen Pitch & Polish competition will feature a wild card contestant – a loyal member of the digital audience who will be chosen just before the semifinal round. The wild card will go straight through to the final where he or she will compete against the two finalists for the ultimate pitching prize worth R1 million.
Pitch & Polish’s loyal fans who tune in weekly for the live-streamed episodes will be pleased to know that audience members will not walk away empty-handed.
By tuning in for every episode, the audience stands to win a large number of amazing prizes throughout the programme, including smartphones, one-on-one mentorship sessions, online entrepreneurial courses, and much more!
Criteria and entries
If you have a registered business and think you have what it takes to go head to head with 15 other hungry entrepreneurs, you are invited to enter online at www.pitchandpolish.com from May 15. Fair warning: competition for the 16 slots will be heavy, so be prepared to really put your best foot forward. Entries close on May 31.
To find out more about the all-new Engen Pitch & Polish programme for 2021, please visit the website at www.pitchandpolish.com.
For more info, contact Penny du Plessis, communications officer of Raizcorp, at pennyd@raizcorp.com or on 011-566-2000
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About Raizcorp
Raizcorp is, according to The Economist, the only genuine incubator in Africa, which provides full service enterprise and supplier development programmes that guide entrepreneurs to profitability.
Raizcorp has created Prosperation – its own unique, world-renowned model of business incubation. Founded in 2000, Raizcorp has become Africa’s premier business incubator model.
For more information, visit www.raizcorp.com.
