Old Mutual Foundation

Empowering people and communities through skills development, education, socio-economic transformation and job creation.

ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT

The Old Mutual Foundation is responsible for investing in socio-economic development initiatives for Old Mutual (South Africa).

The majority of South African households are not yet able to benefit directly from South Africa’s economic advances. Many of these households are in rural and peri-urban settlements and bringing this sector of the population into the mainstream economy will considerably enhance our growth potential as a country, and as a company. We believe in contributing to the development of these communities, by focusing on the development of small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in the following sectors:

• Agriculture
• Manufacturing
• Commerce

FUNDING

We have a hybrid funding approach which combines grant funding from the Old Mutual Foundation and loan funding from the Masisizane Fund, to maximise the impact of our investments, and increase access to finance and development support to these SMMEs operating in target sectors.

Our primary goals are to:

• Develop small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMES) in the Agriculture, Manufacturing and Commercial sectors
• Fund enterprises that will create permanent sustainable jobs, benefit a broad group of beneficiaries as opposed to individuals.
• Develop rural, peri- urban and township communities to ensure they participate in the mainstream economy of South Africa.

FUNDING CRITERIA

• Deal Size
• Grant funding: Between R500K – R2 million
• Grant funding requests < R500K will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Entrepreneur(s) Profile
  • Entrepreneur(s) will be assessed against the following criteria: Education
  • Experience (knowledge or mastery of subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it
  • Background check.

• Geographic Focus
  • Businesses located nationwide, preference given to businesses located in rural, peri-urban and township areas.

• Ownership
  •  ≥51% black (African, Coloured, Indian as per BBBEE codes) owned businesses.

• Sector Focus
  • Agriculture, manufacturing and commercial.
• Stage of business
  •  Start–up and existing businesses
    • Must have sold product and have guaranteed off-take agreements (contracts) in place.
    • For start- up businesses operating for 2 years and less, letters of intent may be considered, but the type of industry the business falls under will be factored and each business assessed on its own merit.
    • For businesses operating for 2 years and less, a maximum funding threshold of R1million will apply.
    • For businesses operating for 2 years and more, the maximum funding threshold is R2 million
  • Turn around deals:
    • Only accepted through referral by a funding partner and are decided on a case-by-case basis.
    • Focus will be on identification of factors which resulted in the business failing in the past and how these challenges have been overcome
• Type of Funding
  • Working capital is capped at not more than 60% of total grant funding amount.
  • Capex (infrastructure and equipment purchases etc.).
  • Business development support (BDS).

• Type of Business Entity
  • Buy ins (purchase of shares from a party that is not part of the business. No buy outs.
  • Closed corporation (CC).
  • Co-operative (Co-op) - Considered under specific conditions
  • Non-profit or non- govemental organisations (NPOs/NGOs). Only the ones which are setup to create a cluster of viable businesses or social enterprises.
  • Private company (Pty) Ltd.
  • Trusts – Considered under specific conditions.

PREFERENCE WILL BE GIVEN TO

• Black woman owned businesses
• Black youth owned businesses
• Businesses which have shown effect or influence made through social and transformation activities.
• Businesses which have a strategic partner assisting the businesses with accessing markets, providing technical expertise and business development support (BDS).

We do not fund the following in the Enterprise Development Portfolio:

• Purchase of land and/or buildings
• Business incubators or organisations offering training to businesses or entrepreneurs
• Conferences or events. Sponsorship of conferences and events exception made if the sponsorship will provide a platform for Old Mutual Foundation to profile its programme and it may lead to business referrals.
• We’re always keen on establishing relationships with organisations aligned to our strategy to collaborate in meeting our objectives. Call us and share your thoughts and how you think we can work together.

HOW TO APPLY FOR FUNDING

We no longer provide application forms and prefer to conduct a telephonic screening with you regarding the potential of your business to match our funding criteria for us to recommend whether you should submit an application to us.

Contact our Enterprise Development (ED) Team, who’re available to you assist during our working hours Mon- Fri, 08:15 – 16:45 and pitch your business to us:

• Simangele Lekhuleni on (t) 011 217 1885 or (c) 081 448 4211
• Dianne Richards on (t) 011 217 1896/71976 or (c) 072 837 5654

If we’re not available to take your phonecall, do not email, sms or whatsapp or leave voicemail messages with your questions, but rather try calling us again another time during our working hours. We’ll communicate with you via email if there is a need to do so.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Applications are open throughout the year and assessed on a quarterly basis.

Depending on the complexity of the business application and the timing of the quarterly review cycle, finalising an application could take between three and five months.

If following our telephonic screening we recommend you submit an application to us, we’ll inform you of our application process.

Ensure you familiarise yourself with our funding criteria, refer to the funding page to view our funding criteria or can download Old Mutual Foundation’s Profile, refer to OMF Profile which has information on all of OMF’s portfolios.

 Source: Old Mutual