23. Aisha Pandor
Vital Stats:
- Business: SweepSouth
- Established: 2012
Up-and-coming fact:
SweepSouth was started using capital from pension funds and savings with a staff complement of four domestic workers in 2014, to being funded following a prize-winning pitch at the SiMODiSA Startup SA tech conference. Today it employs 4000 women.
The startup entrepreneur, whose PhD in Genetics won the 2011 South African Women in Science Award, was only employed for two years before deciding to venture into entrepreneurship. The concept behind the SweepSouth app is similar to Uber and Airbnb. It was brought to life by Pandor and her husband’s struggle to find a domestic worker and eventual meeting with women from an agency who spoke of their dissatisfaction. So the couple cashed in their pension and savings and launched the app which now has 4000 women working for the company. SweepSouth is set to expand into gardening, plumbing and electrical services.