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It\u2019s the halfway mark of M-Net and Telkom SA\u2019s Shark Tank South Africa this week, and to date, eight life-changing deals have been struck in the tank. Each of the Sharks have invested in two business so far, including a partnership investment between renowned businessman Romeo Kumalo and Silicon Valley-based tech tycoon Vinny Lingham in one of the businesses. The range of businesses include hair care products, a teaching app, home d\u00e9cor ware, a clothing line and even a micro-brewery!<\/p>\n
Herewith a breakdown of the diverse entrepreneurs who have managed to sell their businesses to the ever-critical Sharks so far:<\/p>\n
In the premiere episode of Shark Tank South Africa, Vusi Ravele (29) became the first entrepreneur to benefit from a lucrative investment. When Vusi passionately pitched his business \u201cNative D\u00e9cor\u201d in the tank, the five Sharks all circled in to take the bait. Vusi, who designs and creates unique and trendy, yet functional, proudly South African home and d\u00e9cor items and then sells them online, created a feeding frenzy which started with Romeo Kumalo offering the pioneering go-getter, whom he believed had a clear sense of his business, the cash he needed. Dawn Nathan-Jones then quickly moved in to convince Vusi that he rather required someone like her to open doors in the corporate market in conjunction with tech guru Vinny Lingham\u2019s ability for online strategy and international online sales. That\u2019s when bean counter Marnus Broodryk decided to stir the pot, pointing out that Vinny lives far away in Silicon Valley and that someone like him could be at his side, all the time, and that it would be in Vusi\u2019s best interest to choose him and a marketer, like fellow Shark Gil Oved. Hustler Gil wanted Vusi, the epitome of what an entrepreneur should be, all for himself, however. Gil could provide mentorship, channel distribution and marketing and help him to turn into an exceptionally wealthy individual \u2013 a promise which sealed the first business deal in the history of Shark Tank South Africa.<\/p>\n
Vinny delved deep into his own pockets to invest in \u201cComfy Mummy Nursery Feeding Chairs\u201d, the furniture line that Sarah is currently manufacturing in her father-in-law\u2019s shop fitting factory. The deal was sealed with plenty of tears. After Vinny\u2019s fellow Sharks Gil Oved, Romeo Kumalo, Dawn Nathan-Jones and Marnus Broodryk complimented Sarah\u2019s passion, drive and superb presentation, they all declined the proposal, prompting Sarah to give it one final go. She explained to Vinny in detail what her thought processes were, how willing she was to learn and illustrated how difficult it is for inexperienced entrepreneurs to make the right calls without proper guidance. Her heartfelt plea not only reeled Vinny in; it also made tears well up in Dawn, Gil and Marnus\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n
Dawn jumped at the chance to support another up-and-coming female entrepreneur in her candle making business. 35-year-old Tanya Byrne from Johannesburg has been making birthday party candles out of her small factory for a few years, and is one of the only local producers of number candles in South Africa. Once Tanya started breaking down the numbers of her sales for the Sharks, illustrating success despite fierce competition from Chinese imported candles that are very similar to hers, Dawn couldn\u2019t help but be intrigued. \u201cI see a bit of myself in you and I relate to you,\u201d Dawn told Tanya, before offering her a deal and a very exciting partnership.<\/p>\n
Gavin Horn\u2019s online mathematics literacy programme, \u201cNumberwise\u201d, piqued the Sharks\u2019 interest right from the start. Gavin needed capital to turn his online maths programme into a mobile app that can be used by schools and private clients across the country and beyond on an international level. Gavin already had 3500 active users signed up to his product, which is focused on basic maths numeracy, but when the Sharks were informed that Gavin has a reputable chain of schools lined up to use \u201cNumberwise\u201d as their preferred supplier, it was just a matter of deciding which Sharks\u2019 deal was the best for him.<\/p>\n
Accounting expert Marnus Broodryk, Vinny Lingham, Gil Oved and Romeo Kumalo all circled around the tank, trying to make deals with each other so that two of them could invest together in Gavin\u2019s business. In the end, Gavin accepted an appetising offer from Silicon Valley-based Vinny Lingham for his tech knowledge, and local businessman Romeo Kumalo, for his myriad of contacts in the mobile industry locally and on the African continent. \u201cThis is tech that we can share across the whole world!\u201d Vinny raved once Gavin exited the tank.<\/p>\n
Geologist Jacques Nel and his four-legged friend and mascot of his brand, bulldog Lady Trinity, were looking for an investment in his micro-brewery named \u201cJa Brew\u201d. The Sharks loved Jacques\u2019 branding and the potential for growth in the micro brewing market, but had concerns around the fact that he was still waiting for his liquor license. However, Shark Marnus, who has previously owned a vegan restaurant and understood the challenges that come with acquiring a liquor license, felt that he could have a lot of fun developing the business with Jacques, rather than simply investing. Marnus offered Jacques a deal and committed to helping him lay the essential ground work to get his business up and running properly. \u201cTake the deal!\u201d fellow Shark Gil Oved advised Jacques, which he was happy to do.<\/p>\n
40-year-old media consultant Taryn Gill. Taryn came into the tank with her company \u201cPerfect Hair\u201d, a collection of proudly African products for African women. Taryn\u2019s naturally made hair care products are targeted at all different hair texture types, for women, children and men, and she wanted to use the Sharks\u2019 investment to open up concept stores. Most of the Sharks told her that this was an unrealistic idea, and not the right direction required to successfully grow her business.<\/p>\n
But Taryn\u2019s personality and hustling attitude is what really got the Sharks excited. Despite offers from Gil Oved as well as Vinny Lingham, Romeo came on board with a deal that included his secure base of distribution channels, as well as more money for less equity. He also introduced a game-changer by offering his wife, business woman and former Miss South Africa Basetsana Kumalo, as a partner in the business, specifically to focus on the marketing side of things. It was an offer that Taryn simply couldn\u2019t refuse, and with that, Romeo clinched his second deal of the season.<\/p>\n
Thabiso\u2019s clothing line, \u201cT-Squared\u201d was started out of his own garage in Gugulethu a few years ago. Since then, his distinctive streetwear brand has grown to the point where he now owns eight industrial sewing machines and his current premises is literally bursting at the seams. He needed the Sharks to give him the capital to expand, and quick. \u201cYou\u2019re employing five people,\u201d fellow Shark Marnus stated. \u201cIf we could get 400 000 entrepreneurs in this country on the level that you are, then unemployment is solved,\u201d he raved. Dawn also loved Thabiso and his business from the start, and when he informed the Sharks that he is now branching into producing uniforms for local schools, it was enough for Dawn to take the plunge. Not only did she offer Thabiso much-needed capital to expand his business immediately, but she also gave him something that the other Sharks couldn\u2019t: her time. She is relocating to Cape Town at the end of this year, and part of her deal included her one-on-one dedication to growing \u201cT-Squared\u201d in the Mother City.<\/p>\n
The husband and wife team from the Karoo came into the tank with their novel business called \u201cCreative Doormats\u201d. Having married straight out of university, Henco and Chantelle had to get creative in order to make extra money to get by. Their business is a simple one: they manufacture bespoke doormats with unique and personalised messages on them and are able to produce the mats at low margins, thanks to a secret time-saving technique that they developed themselves.<\/p>\n
Again, it was a case of investing in the people rather than just in the business, as a number of the Sharks started showing some serious interest in the Wiids. Vinny was first to offer them a deal, but in a move that the rest of the Sharks deemed rude and arrogant, he only gave them five seconds to accept, and without giving them the opportunity to hear from any of his fellow Sharks. This left the young couple speechless and unable to take Vinny up on his offer, but luckily for them, both Gil and Dawn chipped in with counter offers to Vinny\u2019s. In the end, and despite a brand new offer from Vinny, Henco and Chantelle eventually decided to accept marketing guru Gil Oved\u2019s offer due to the skills that he would be bringing to the party.<\/p>\n
The next episode of Shark Tank SA will be broadcast on Sunday, 6 October between 18:00 and 19:00 on M-Net Channel 101. This corresponds with the timeslot on a Sunday when all DStv customers can get a taste of what\u2019s available on M-Net 101, so if you\u2019re not a DStv Premium customer, you can also go to channel 101 to watch Shark Tank SA. The series will also be available on DStv Catch Up and streamed live on DStv Now.<\/p>\n
To find out more about the businesses that have been featured on the series so far, especially if you\u2019re interested in supporting them with an order or purchase, go to www.mnet.tv\/sharktank<\/a> or follow the conversation about the show on Twitter @MNetSharkTank<\/a> with the hashtag #SharkTankSA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shark Tank SA: Round-up of deals so far It\u2019s the halfway mark of M-Net and Telkom SA\u2019s Shark Tank South Africa this week, and to date, eight life-changing deals have been struck in the tank. Each of the Sharks have invested in two business so far, including a partnership investment between renowned businessman Romeo Kumalo… Continue reading Shark Tank Entrepreneurs: Round Up<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-2765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-shark-tank","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}