#RiseUPSA – a Linkage initiative
Aim: Connect affected small businesses with corporate support. Small businesses are vetted in advance of the linkage being made.
The #RiseUpSA initiative was started in response to the civil unrest that South Africa faced in July of 2021. The majority of the unrest occurred in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng. Linkage decided to open up the onboarding to SMMEs who were affected (both formal and informal) that needed support in keeping their businesses going.
Linkage recruited large corporates to commit their support to “adopting” an SMME or several SMMEs and supporting them in various ways. The initiative was offered free of charge to all stakeholders.
The Challenge
Linkage needed an easy-to-use digital platform that mobilised corporates to select and adopt one or more SMMEs to provide them with assistance to rebuild their businesses.
Linkage wanted to offer a cloud-based platform to register all SMMEs affected by the recent events to create and attract support for them for the next 67 days.
Additionally, they wanted to leverage their existing expertise, and open up a model for freemium usage to SMMEs. They needed a speedy turnaround time for this initiative and provide it back to SMME’s with no cost to them.
Benefits of Project
Raise Awareness
Lend A Helping Hand
Adopting New Technology
The Solution
Using a brand new online cloud technology platform called Bubble.io and connecting to Linkage’s current database infrastructure, Noldor Technologies created a quick turnaround solution for SMMEs to register. Bubble is the most powerful no-code platform, empowering developers to build production-ready web apps.
These SMMEs were checked, vetted, by registering and uploading the relevant documentation. Linkage added these SMMEs to their freemium option, corporates could then search through this list of SMMEs and collaborate and lend a hand and get these destroyed businesses back on their feet as quickly as possible.
