Get compliant. Get customers. Get funded. Get bigger. One free account for the whole journey — funding you actually qualify for, corporate supply chains, mentors who have done it, and the everyday tools that keep a business running.
Three fixes and you qualify for six more programmes.
One free account. Every section below is a real part of the app, not a plan for one.
MY BUSINESS
Every programme we have verified, with a straight answer on whether it is a grant or a loan, whether it is open, and where the information came from.
Load your project once. It is scored against every funder mandate on the platform and put in front of the ones that fit.
Invoices, quotations and cash-flow tracking — the records a funder asks for before anything else.
Your own QR code. Someone scans it and they have your business, your profile and a way to reach you.
GROWTH & MARKETS
Become a verified supplier and get in front of corporates who have enterprise development budgets they must spend.
Pass work to other members under a written agreement the platform generates for both of you.
Advertise what you do to the rest of the membership, and find members who do what you need.
For funders: screened deal flow matched to a written mandate, with the reason for every match.
LEARN & CONNECT
Answers from researched South African information — funding, CIPC, SARS, B-BBEE — and tells you when it does not know rather than guessing.
Verified mentors who have run a business here, with scheduling and progress tracking.
Short courses with certificates, built for people running a business rather than studying one.
Install it on your phone. Your data, your drafts and your card keep working when the signal does not.
Wherever your business is right now, there is a door here for you. Most members come in through one and end up using three.
Every grant and funding programme in South Africa, and a straight answer on which ones you qualify for — and what is stopping you on the rest.
See what is open → ⛓ Get customersGet into corporate supply chains, become a certified supplier, see what buyers are looking for, and pass work to other members under a proper agreement.
Join free → ▣ Get set up and stay compliantThe boring things that block you — registration, tax clearance, B-BBEE affidavits, invoicing and quotations, and the financial records funders ask for.
Join free → ◈ Get better at running itMentors who have already done it, short courses with certificates, and an AI coach that answers from researched South African information rather than guesswork.
Join free →Most lists tell you a programme exists. Ours tells you whether it is actually a grant or a loan, whether it is open right now, when it was last checked, and where the information came from.
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Free members see every programme, get told which ones they actually qualify for, and are alerted the day a new call opens.
See what I qualify for →Most things called grants in South Africa are loans, cost-shares or blended finance. Every record says plainly whether you pay it back.
Funding calls open and close constantly. Every record carries its verification date and a link to the funder's own page.
Not just a list. A verdict — and where you fall short, the specific thing to fix so you qualify next time.
Every member gets a tailored experience with the tools their role needs.
Your daily business workspace.
Curated, investment-ready deal flow.
Coach the next generation, at scale.
Reach thousands of growing businesses.
Ten Thousand Businesses installs straight from your browser — a real icon on your home screen, full screen, and it keeps working when the signal drops. It takes about fifteen seconds and costs nothing.
Single sign-on across every device with a shared cloud database. Your business travels with you.
⟳ Real-time syncSouth Africa is the gateway to Africa — deep capital markets, an independent judiciary, predictable commercial law and, through AfCFTA, access to a continental market. The difficulty has never been appetite. It has been access.
"From a distance, you cannot tell which businesses are real, which are ready, and who to trust."
That is exactly the problem we solve.
Verified businesses matched to your mandate — sector, stage, ticket size — with written reasons for every match.
Identity, registration and financials confirmed before you see a name. Every document access logged.
We visit, interview management, verify documents and report honestly — including what concerns us.
Exchange control specialists, corporate attorneys, tax and B-BBEE advisors — managed through one point of contact.
A 90-minute Market Entry Consultation: where the opportunity is in your sector, how entry is structured, realistic timelines, and the risks nobody advertises. The fee is credited in full if you proceed.
Book a Consultation →We don't give legal, tax or exchange control advice, and we never hold your funds. Your capital goes directly to the business you choose. We coordinate licensed professionals and make the introductions — that independence is what makes our screening worth trusting.
Serving investors from the UK · Europe · Gulf · Asia · North America · African diaspora
South Africa has no passport-for-sale scheme, and anyone offering you one is selling something that does not exist. What it does have is a Business Visa: invest in a real, operating South African company, employ South Africans, and build a route to permanent residence.
The visa is the easy part. Finding a real business worth R5 million of your money is not.
Immigration firms file the paperwork and hand the business search back to you. We start where they stop — because a verified database of South African companies is what we already are.
Matched to your sector and capital, from companies already verified on the platform — with their staffing numbers and trading history on the record before you ever transfer funds.
At least 60% of permanent staff must be South African citizens or permanent residents. We confirm the target already meets it, or can. This is the most common reason applications fail.
The DTIC recommendation, the visa, and every piece of legal advice comes from an independent immigration attorney. We are not your lawyer and we do not pretend to be.
The Labour letter at month 12. The permanent residence window at year 5. The R5 million that must stay invested. We track the dates, because missing one undoes the decade.
Match to a business and obtain the DTIC recommendation. The DTIC works to roughly 45 working days.
Business Visa application. Police clearances, medicals, proof that the funds came from outside South Africa.
Visa issued for up to three years and renewable. You actively run the business. Labour letter due within 12 months.
Permanent residence after five continuous compliant years. The R5 million stays invested a further five.
R5 000 000 in capital, which must originate from outside South Africa. Passive investments — shares, bonds, property held for yield — do not qualify. This is an active business visa and you are expected to run something.
The DTIC may waive or reduce that figure for sectors it treats as being in the national interest, which have included ICT, agro-processing, automotive and tourism. Whether a waiver is available for your sector is one of the first things we establish, before you commit to anything.
That approval is guaranteed. It is not. The DTIC and the Department of Home Affairs decide on their own criteria and both have wide discretion. Any adviser promising you an outcome is telling you what you want to hear.
That citizenship is automatic at year ten. Naturalisation is discretionary, and the rules are being rewritten — Cabinet approved a White Paper in April 2026 proposing a points-based system that would score investment directly. We track it. We will tell you when it moves.
Ten Thousand Businesses is not a law firm and does not provide immigration, legal or tax advice. Immigration work is carried out by an independent qualified attorney. Information current at September 2026 and subject to change.
Pitch days, masterclasses, breakfasts and the awards. Free to members, and you book them inside the app.
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Some things you should not have to learn. Our team does them for you and the result lands in your account on the app.
Join free and ask for a quote →
We quote once we know what you need, and you approve before we bill. Nothing starts without your say-so.
Build your profile, get your readiness score, see every programme you match and prepare your documents without paying anything. You are only asked to pay at the point you apply to a funder or send a referral — and the options are shown to you inside, before you commit to anything.
The same login works on the website, the iPhone app and the Android app.
Your account is ready. Log in on any device with the same details — your dashboard is waiting.
Open My Dashboard →AI coach, investor alerts, QR networking, offline mode and push notifications — built for how entrepreneurs actually work.