LanteOTC

Entrepreneurship is hard, currently +90 Startups fail and investors battle to support entrepreneurs or add value post investment because of lack of accurate information. We spent time researching on "what makes entrepreneurs fail", at LanteOTC we aim to resolve the problem by accessing the much needed information using incentives to motivate the entrepreneur. The information is then entered on SaaS platform to furnish clear insights for investors to use in their value creation intervention.

Furthermore the rewards are used to nudge entrepreneurs to ensure that the startup has the best chance of survival, by improved transparency, governance and operations.

Increased startup success will improve the employment rates particularly in youth. Small-medium businesses create accessible jobs and if we support more small businesses / startups we subsequently create more accessible jobs.       

Investor generally raise capital from pension funds, improved business success would mean a better life for pensioners.  

As an entrepreneur myself, I spent a lot of time looking for funding and the few times capital was available I was faced with harsh terms. However post investment and I discounted important but less exciting activities like compliance, employee review, reporting etc and over time that led to small business failure.

I learnt that the challenges were not unique to myself in that +90% small businesses in South Africa fail. This has consequently resulted in +60% youth unemployment, catalyzing economic crime rate which is 77% in South Africa and yet South Africa is the most economically sound from the 54 countries in Africa.

My solution is a shared value rewards program, makes small businesses successful. With increased small business success, more capital will be deployed to startups.

We source rewards from large firms that wish to give small business their services at a discount in exchange for critical mass.

The rewards program is offered to investors with interest in enhancing their portfolio by motivating entrepreneurs through incentives and using SaaS dashboard platform insights to help investors apply accurate interventions at the right time.

The entrepreneurs are furnished cash back incentives based on the level of engagement.

The idea is offer incentive solution to investors worldwide, although in South Africa we will participate as both rewards issuers and investors via our crowdfunding platform LanteOTC.

The solution is directly targeted at serving investors, private sector and entrepreneurs in order to benefit the greater public particularly the unemployed and pensioners.

Nudges can change behavior and improve small business efficiency and as a result save and create jobs. 

Annually we host the Africa Investor Week, which attracts industry leaders from 28 countries, mainly Africa. The purpose of the event is to debate and discuss solutions on industry hurdles.

We have been using the event to test, validate our ideas and we have over 200 people attending our event in Johannesburg and we aim to expand to Nairobi, Kenya (East Africa) this year. 

Our SaaS platform will help them with curated data and insights in the small businesses they have invested in thereby enabling accurate interventions at the right time for the business to move forward.

New and small businesses are generally faced with failure and this has affected job creation. Engaging private sector network presents an opportunity for stakeholders to get involved in driving small businesses forward.

Our technology is in two parts in the capital raising and in the post funding monitoring and evaluation.

Although in the greater world we will scale using only the rewards solution and will only use our online crowdfunding platform in South Africa to reach small businesses in the periphery.

We are licensing SaaS AWS dynamic dashboards to investors so as to enable them to monitor productivity and progress.

Making use of shared value incentives to nudge entrepreneurs to improve efficiency. 

The shared rewards program makes use of machine learning in order to learn what and where businesses are spending most of the operating expenses. This ensures that the service providers we partner with add value.

Silver Touch Events & Travel is one of the companies we invested in and has made use of the shared value rewards program. It is an events management company. During the 2018 financial year:

• It got a new contract, took its team for training and team building, compiled and submitted monthly management reports for 10 months, submitted unaudited semi-annual and audited annual financial reports. 
• It moved to the Gold Level in the shared value rewards program,
• It was entitled to 19% discount,
• Silver Touch Events & Travel received $600 cashback in audit fees, $2900 in flights discounts, and $900 cashback in car rentals  

We host Africa Investor Week on an annual basis at, and in partnership with, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The chief objective is to share insights about the Small Business landscape in Africa.

The common view from the panel discussions and key note addresses is that lack of access to funding is not the only contributing factor to small business failure. Inefficiencies in operations, lack of access to markets and not robust business models are some of the main contributing factors to high business failure rate.

Shared value rewards program treats each of these areas of business thereby acting as a catalyst for robust business model, improved efficiencies in operations and management, and access to markets.

Silver Touch Events & Travel, 100% woman-owned business, has made use of the shared value rewards program. In the financial year 2018/2019 it had saved $4 400 in cashback from audit, team building and flight services. This resulted in improved operational efficacy, management and increased profits.

As more and more businesses make use of the shared value rewards program, we will see improved business models, high ROIs, and at least 10 000 youth jobs in the SADC region alone. Reduced business failure rate means improved quality of life for pensioners (as VCs raise funds from pension funds). It also means high ROIs for Angel Investors which would drive further investments into the SME space, which will lead to high economic growth.

Current 

• Investors - 104

In five years' time

• Entrepreneurs/Businesses - 200
• VC firms, angel investors - 10 000
• Service Providers - 100

One year goals

• Co-invest in at least 30 businesses in South Africa, 
• Partner with a further 100 VC firms and angel investors in South Africa.

Five year goals

• Forge partnerships with at least 100 service providers with multinational footprints, such as Google, Microsoft, Deloitte etc,  
• Fund at least 200 businesses in the SADC region, 
• Partner with at least 250 VCs and Angel Investors in the SADC region to utilize the shared value rewards program, and
• This in turn will create at least 20 000 jobs, 

Financial Barriers

• Working capital.
• Client acquisition.

• Raise capital from VCs and Angle Investors
• Participating in competition such as the MIT Solve

Full-time (3)

• Manager Director (1)
• Actuarial Analysts (2)

Part-time (1)

• Supervising Actuary (1)

Contractor (1)

• Website updates and maintenance

The LanteOTC is comprised of individuals with technical, management and marketing experience:

• Emmanuel Luthuli - 15 years in actuarial product development,
• Malizole Mdlekeza - qualified actuary and 10 years in investments and valuations 
• Noah Greenhill - +20 years marketing executive
• Mussa Mpelepele - 4 years in business analysis and strategy 

We have partnered with the following organisations for the shared value incentives:

• AWS - website and server services 
• Emirates - flight services
• PwC - accounting and audit services 
• Europcar - car rental services

LanteOTC makes money by allowing VCs, Angel Investors to utilise the shared rewards program. We need at least 161 users to be sustainable.

• Raise capital,
• Network opportunities - share insights 
• Partnership opportunities - for the shared value rewards program

• We seek partnerships for the shared value rewards program to optimize the business model,
• This will result in further development of the model into one that is robust.

The shared value rewards program requires partnerships with the following organizations:

• UBER - transport services,
• Google, 
• Accounting and Audit firms, 
• Legal firms, 
• Mobile network providers, 
• Airline companies,
• Researchers.

The shared value rewards program makes use of machine learning to learn about where each business is incurring most of its operating expenses. All treatment areas (factors contributing to the increased business failure rate) are attended to equally. The shared value rewards program main purpose is to reduce the failure rate of small businesses, and what it does ultimately is use technology to improve quality of life.

VCs raise funds mostly from pension funds. Failure of small businesses leads to loss of life savings for the pensioners. When small businesses perform, pensioners are better served with increased returns to their savings.

As more and more businesses make use of the shared value rewards program, more investments will be made into the SME space, thereby strengthening old industries and giving birth to new industries. This will lead to more jobs for the youth, and poverty eradication dream will be within our sight.

The Future Planet Capital Prize will be used for:

• Client acquisition (70%) – facilitation of partnership formations, and
• Working capital (30%)