Our Mission: TechnoServe helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries.

TechnoServe was founded in 1968 by Ed Bullard and has since grown a phenomenal global reputation. We have been in South Africa since 2003, and have been supporting the national agenda of black economic empowerment by helping previously disadvantaged people gain the skills, information and resources they need to create new economic opportunities.

TechnoServe South Africa brings a unique combination of personal and institutional in-depth experiences and relationships in the private sector. We are deeply rooted in local communities and our predominantly local staff understand how to foster innovation and change in entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and how to develop the local institutions needed to support a vibrant private sector via agriculture value chain development, enterprise development and local economic development.

Our local team is supported by our global staff network that has extensive private sector background in international business, often drawn from top-tier consulting firms and with access to global best practices. TechnoServe has a strong fundraising and operational infrastructure which ensures rigorous measurement of success and failure.

We have a strong track record of helping people establish businesses where none exist and supporting their access to markets.

We also work extensively with major local companies and multi-nationals to help local small and emerging entrepreneurs and farmers access the skills, technology, finance and supply chain/market opportunities they need to succeed, whether via enterprise development, preferential procurement or corporate social investment.

We design programs to catalyse private sector, enterprise-led growth, and implement and coordinate them via hands-on, analytically based business and technical consulting, mentoring, and training.

The starting point of our work is the identification of both real market opportunities where small-scale producers and SMEs can succeed, and of high potential local entrepreneurial talent to lead them. We diagnose these opportunities and help create strategies to unlock their value. The next step is technical and business advice, including training and ongoing mentorship to implement these plans.

As the businesses grow, the local entrepreneurs are coached on the skills needed for sustainable competitiveness via ongoing innovation and improvement without the need for further assistance from TechnoServe. And, as a rule, we look to replicate and scale entrepreneurial success to transform entire sectors and industries.