South African entrepreneurs, enterprises and innovators have a powerful new way to connect with customers, capital sources and partners globally using a big data analytics service that intelligently matches them with relevant and compatible growth opportunities from a database of more than 15-million qualified prospects.
The SABLE (South African Business Link to Experts) Accelerator, a global resource network of expat South African consultants, investors and domain experts based in Silicon Valley, has signed an agreement with New York-based Powerlinx to provide a massively scalable way for South African companies, research centres and institutions to quickly identify and engage with strategic growth opportunities domestically and globally.
The goal of the agreement is to more rapidly commercialise innovation, attract foreign investment, and develop global markets.
By integrating the Powerlinx global business-to-business matchmaking platform into its web site, SABLE is applying disruptive innovation and “radical efficiency” to a business development and alliance building process that is typically complex, costly and time-intensive for businesses and new venture start-ups.
Powerlinx, which is led and backed by a group of founders who understand the needs of the global business market, an experienced team of big data technologists, search specialists and information service experts, has its technology headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company is previewing its opportunity sourcing service in a meeting of SABLE Network members at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California.
Initial pilot users of Powerlinx include a number of emerging growth companies from South Africa, including PHEMI, BusinessOptics, Delta Steam Systems, EcoloBlue, Cavendish Corporation (Kari’s Malva Pudding), DisruptiveVision, MPULL, TimeToReply, CapeRay, Questr, Cognician, Cognisses, Korwe Software, Virtual Mobile Tech, GoMetro, SoftCopy, wiGroup, XMPro and InnovUS.
“We’ll be empowering South African companies to be more self-directed and effective in global partnering and international market access by enabling them to seamlessly find, connect and act on verified opportunities to grow their businesses globally,” says Donovan Neale-May, SABLE’s managing partner.
SABLE’s Powerlinx sign-up process includes a short initial assessment online of the registrant’s strategic objectives looking at areas such as business partnering, distribution development, new market entry, geo-expansion, product diversification, supplier sourcing, capital raising/financing, acquisition or sale, intellectual property licensing, or exit planning. This is done online with question prompts.
Powerlinx then algorithmically finds a set of suitable matches from its global database of 15-million profiles and submits them for review by the registrant. Once a SABLE registrant has approved a potential match, Powerlinx facilitates the introduction.
Initially, SABLE will offer the service on a free-trial basis for a limited number of members. Once registered, South African companies can continually track the status of their matches for all objectives posted, as well as be introduced
to other companies seeking similar connections.
“Most companies, including the 230-million that make up the global business market, do not have an effective, trusted online platform to automate business partnering, alliance building and organic and inorganic growth,” says Doron Cohen, CEO of Powerlinx.
“They continue to work within inefficient, tedious and expensive processes for research and outreach, along with hiring of outside bankers and brokers, to fulfil their expansion goals. Powerlinx’s cutting-edge platform completely transforms that process by enabling business owners and leaders to discover growth opportunities on a global scale.”
