Entrepreneur . Business
Based: Johannesburg
Matsi as an entrepreneur:
- Co-founded Emerge Business Consultants that provided services that include Supplier Development, Enterprise Development strategy formulation and implementation, BBBEE advisory and verification, Small Medium Enterprise education and capacity training.
- Founder & CEO of Furaha Afrika Holdings a company with subsidiaries including Furaha Solutions (a joint venture partnership with Work Force, a listed AltX-JSE company), Furaha Investments and Furaha Events.
Matsi as an entrepreneurship ecosystem builder
- MD of SiMODiSA, an industry association that catalyses and amplifies high growth, high impact entrepreneurship, by providing access to markets, access to social capital and advocating for the growth of the Venture Capital industry and creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- Co-founder of Venture Central Portal, South Africa’s digital home for entrepreneurs, a portal that aggregates information, opportunities, access to markets, access to funding, and access to resources and tools, to guide entrepreneurs from idea to scale.
- MD of the South African Black Entrepreneurs Forum (SABEF), industry association that created entrepreneurship ecosystems in South African townships, rural and peri-urban areas
Matsi as a contributor to entrepreneurship and innovation policy
- Led advocacy teams, that have impacted the South African policy landscape by driving traction in the Sec 12J tax incentive for Venture Capital Companies (VCC) and also by getting the South African government to lift Intellectual Property (IP) exchange control and Loop structure hurdles
- Appointed by the South African Minister of Science and Technology to be part of a review panel for the Intellectual Property (IP) Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act
- A member of the South Africa Bureau of Standards (SABS), innovation management committee
Matsi as a Board Member, Trustee and Board Advisor
- Board member of the Free State Land Use Advisory Board
- Board of Advisor on the Agrie-Vie Private Equity Fund
- Advisor on the Barclays Africa Shared Growth Advisory Council
- Trustee on the MMI Masikhululise ESD Trust
- Non-Executive Director of The Innovation Hub Management Company SOC-LTD, a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA)
- Trustee of Orange Corners, an incubation initiative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- Founding steering committee member of the National Mentorship Movement
- Subcommittee member of the South African Venture Capital/ Private Equity Association (SAVCA)
- A member of the Institute of Directors SA (IoDSA)
Matsi as a global thought leader on entrepreneurship
- Written and have been featured in numerous local and international publications, including Forbes Africa, Small Business Connect, Entrepreneur Magazine, The Boston Review, Mail & Guardian, Succeed Magazine, Destiny Magazine, The New Age newspaper, Business Day and City Press.
- Matsi is a weekly featured guest on Radio 2000 and SAfm as a business mentor.
Matsi’s global awards, recognition and participation in the entrepreneurship development space
- Keynote Speaker at the Oxford Business Forum Africa 2018, hosted by the Oxford Saïd Business School in the United Kingdom
- A founding curator of the World Economic Forum, global shapers community
- In 2016 was selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of the Top 50 Global Shapers to attend the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland and represented the country
- Acknowledged by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting of New Champions, in Tianjin China by Professor Klaus Schwab (founder of the WEF) for her contribution to entrepreneurship development in South
- Named Top 30 African leaders in technology, business, art, science, politics, design and media by Quartz Africa.
- Named one of the Top 100 Young Independent Disruptors by Independent Day Media
- A mentor on the World Bank / VC4Africa XL Africa program
- Participated in the World Bank Inaugural Innovation Summit in Singapore (2017)
- Member of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN)
- Participated at the G20 Youth Entrepreneurship Alliance in Berlin Germany 2017
- Awarded the Coca –Cola Young Achiever of the year award at the Women In Leadership – Africa Summit 2013, alongside Nigerian female billionaire Folarunsho Alakija