Our Work

What we have built so far.

The programmes and projects behind our three areas of work, and the founders they have reached.

Ecosystem & Community

Startup Grind East London

Startup Grind East London is our flagship community programme: a licensed chapter of Startup Grind, the global founder network that runs in partnership with Google for Startups. Since 2018 it has brought the Eastern Cape's entrepreneurs together through fireside chats with people who have built real businesses, masterclasses, and events.

2018
running since
61
events hosted
1,010
members

Voices at our fireside chats

We have hosted many speakers since 2018. These four are among the people who shaped the chapter.

Mqondisi Goba

December 2018 · our first fireside chat

Mqondisi Goba

Enterprise Development Specialist, ELIDZ Science & Technology Park

The chapter's very first fireside chat. Goba showed founders that the tools to turn an idea into a physical product, from 3D printing to precision manufacturing, were already within reach in East London.

Lindile Xoko

May 2019

Lindile Xoko

MTN

Xoko, who built Cisco's European SME channel across seven markets, made the case that ICT could turn the Eastern Cape into a globally competitive agricultural hub, and that the answers would come from the region's own entrepreneurs.

Vuyani Jarana

March 2023 · our relaunch

Vuyani Jarana

CEO, Ilitha Telecommunications

Brought in to keynote the chapter's relaunch after the Covid hiatus. Jarana, who has run Vodacom Business and restructured South African Airways, urged founders to treat technology as the lever for Eastern Cape enterprise, not a luxury.

Nonopa Tenza

February 2024

Nonopa Tenza

Founder, Kevinot Farming

Tenza left blue-chip banking in 2021 to build Kevinot Farming. She shared how she scales agribusiness with a financier's discipline, and why the Eastern Cape's soil is its greatest untapped asset.

Milestone moments

Two events from 2025 that pushed the chapter further, one across borders and one onto a global stage.

Poster for InspireHer, the Startup Grind East London Women's Month celebration on 29 August 2025

August 2025

InspireHer: Business Women Uniting Across Borders

For Women's Month, the East London chapter joined Startup Grind Maseru in Lesotho and Startup Grind Eldoret in Kenya for a first-of-its-kind cross-border collaboration. Three chapters, three countries, one conversation about what it takes to build as a woman in business. Held on 29 August 2025, it was a hybrid event, hosted in person at the Limani Gallery in East London and joined by a virtual audience.

Founders gathered at the All-Star Pitch Battle in East London, September 2025
Founders at the All-Star Pitch Battle, September 2025.

September 2025

The Inaugural All-Star Pitch Battle

East London's most promising startups went head to head, each with one minute to pitch in front of a panel of expert judges, on 18 September 2025. The winner, Sivuyile Ngcanga, went on to pitch at the Startup Grind Summit in Silicon Valley in April 2026, to investors and an international audience. Vuyo Ncwaiba and Sibongile Booi also attended, as Director and Co-Director of the Startup Grind East London chapter.

Past Speakers

A selection of the founders, business leaders and specialists who have spoken at our fireside chats.

A grid of past speakers who have spoken at Startup Grind East London fireside chats

Capacity-Building & Training

The Funding Readiness Masterclass

Funding is where many promising businesses stall. The Funding Readiness Masterclass, a programme Mwanga designs and delivers with the Mr Price Foundation, closes the gap between needing funding and being genuinely ready for it. It is built for youth-owned businesses, founders aged 18 to 35, and runs as six live webinars backed by three hands-on workshops, delivered online and in person across the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The programme is running through 2026.

6
live webinars
3
hands-on workshops
2026
running now

Inside the programme

Six webinars take founders through the full funding journey. Three workshops then turn that learning into the financial models and pitch decks that funders actually ask for.

Six live webinars

1

Introduction to Funding Readiness and Funders

What it means to be funding ready, and an honest look at what makes a business fundable.

2

Building a Strong Funding Case

Your business model up close: unit economics, pricing, and the numbers behind the pitch.

3

Unlocking Funding: Documentation and Compliance

What funders look at and why, and getting your documents and cashflow in order.

4

Startup Funding Strategy

Demystifying startup funding and finding your way around the funding landscape.

5

Pitching and Negotiation

Crafting a funding narrative that lands, and negotiating with confidence.

6

Retail and Market Access Readiness

What corporates look for in a supplier, and how to be ready to sell to them.

Three hands-on workshops

Workshop 1

Financial Model Clinic

Hands-on work on projections, use of funds, and articulating a clear funding ask.

Workshop 2

Pitch Deck Deep Dive

Deck refinement, narrative coaching, and structured peer review.

Workshop 3

Funding Simulation Panel

A mock funder review, with scoring and concrete next steps.

Technology & Solutions

Clinic Connect

Mwanga does not only bring founders together and train them. It also builds. Clinic Connect is a working proof of concept: a patient data tool that lets a clinic capture and find patient records and manage the day's queue from one clear screen, designed to keep working where connectivity is poor. Mwanga built it in response to a brief from MTN for a clinic data-capturing solution and entered it into the competition. More than the brief itself, it shows something simple and important: Mwanga can take a real problem and turn it into working software you can open and use.

What it does

Patient records

Capture, store, and find a patient's details in one place, instead of on paper.

The day's queue

See who is waiting and who has been seen, so a busy clinic stays organised through the day.

Built for real conditions

Designed with low-connectivity clinics in mind, so the tool stays usable when the network does not.

What it is, and what it isn't

We describe Clinic Connect accurately on purpose. It is a front-end proof of concept, not finished production software. The data resets when the page is refreshed, there is no live user sign-in yet, and the offline syncing is simulated rather than connected to a real server. What it does show is a complete, usable interface and a clear path to a production build. For a partner weighing up Mwanga, that honesty is the point: it proves real capability without overstating what has been built.

See it for yourself, the working demo is live.

View the live demo