SweepSouth to rake in R100m sales

by Lionel Casey

The Cape Town-based start-up, launched in 2014 through co-founders Aisha Pandor (CEO) and Alen Ribic (CTO), allows users to e-book and pay for cleaning offerings via connecting them with domestic people.

Pandor advised ITWeb that the mobile and Web-based app has seen full-size growth because of inception, developing employment for over 10 000 employees who have been previously unemployed or below-hired, and has paid out tens of millions of rands in salaries.

SweepSouth to rake in R100m sales 3

“We have furnished employment possibilities for heaps of ‘SweepStars’ [cleaners] on our platform who are predominantly unmarried moms with many dependents. What is likewise critical to us is the wider effect that SweepSouth has made within the neighborhood home cleaning industry, which required modernization through generation,” explains Pandor.

“SA has over 1 million domestic people who deserve access to dignified work and good pay. At the same time, numerous homeowners searched for dependable cleaning services but did not know where to look.”
forty 000 lively users

The SweepSouth app has had over a hundred and fifty 000 downloads, with over forty 000 lively users.

The corporation presently employs around 40 employees, who recognition for the execution of SweepSouth’s method.

“We have cleaned over one hundred 000 houses throughout SA. Over and above offering employment possibilities, we additionally offer value to our sweep starts. Over 85% of them say they opt for running on the platform instead of having long-time everlasting employment because of its ability and independence. Furthermore, they could earn up to R8 000 in line with month, which includes recommendations – more than double the income of an average domestic employee in SA.”

While the organization is bringing in tremendous revenue, it is not yet a worthwhile commercial enterprise as all the income pass returned into the business to gas increase.

Aisha Pandor, co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth

Last 12 months, SweepSouth partnered with insure-tech company Simply Financial Services to offer unfastened existence and incapacity insurance merchandise to its cleaners. The employer also collaborated with the non-profit corporation Afrika Tikkun to provide cleaners with educational guides targeted at career steerage and early formative years improvement for mothers.

Funding improve

Last May, SweepSouth concluded its third investment round, led by worldwide retail answers enterprise Smollan. The undisclosed amount changed into used to gasoline growth and extend services in the four cities in which it operates – Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban.

At an identical time, the enterprise also received investment from Draper Dark Flow, the Silicon Valley venture capital (VC) fund for Africa, mounted by asTim Draper’s assignment capital” Investments were the ‘rocket deliver’ that helped SweepSouth gasoline growth. Typically in tech -begin-up investments, the general public of project capital firms are interested in doing fairness based totally deals, and that is the case with the funding that we’ve raised over time,” notes Pandor.

“While we’ve got benefitted from the experience and expertise shared via our investors, we’ve additionally visible some of them get up to 12 instances extra than what that they had to begin with invested so that they’ve had amazing returns on their investments.”

Previous funders consist of the Vumela Fund, which injected R10m in 2016, and blockchain investment and advisory offerings firm Newtown Partners, owned using Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen, which invested in SweepSouth at some stage in its early levels.

While SweepSouth has a visible fast increase in its four years of lifestyles, Pandor says the corporation has had its fair percentage of unexpected challenges.

“There have been levels in which the fast boom price has delivered unforeseen demanding situations in certain regions, for example in ensuring that we’ve got sufficient group participants and workers to be had to can cope with a surge in clients. We additionally have to make sure that the platform enables us to bring about more SweepStars.”While the corporation is bringing in remarkable revenue, it is not but a profitable enterprise as all of the income cross lower back into the business to fuel boom.”

Africa growth

SweepSouth might be launching additional offerings on the platform from early subsequent years because the business enterprise also eyes enlargement into other African markets.

“There are many professional people in SA who want employment opportunities so we can be including extra offerings such as plumbing, electric, gardening, carpet, and window cleaning services which we have already started out running on, and I’m certainly enthusiastic about our plans.

“We are also looking at increasing SweepSouth to other markets consisting of Kenya as we see ourselves as an emerging marketplace-focused platform that objectives to serve the numerous professionals who do not have the time to source the services we offer,” concludes Pandor.

Related Posts