Cappeny Estates

3 minutes (one of a series)

Produced for CNN African Start-Up

Cappeny Estates was started in 2013 by former project manager Xolani Gumede and his wife Yoliswa. Defying Durban’s hot and humid weather, their south african startup has become the first commercial venture to grow strawberries on the KwaZulu natal north coast.

Strawberries are notoriously difficult to grow as an apex crop, and given that difficulty they viewed it as a safety measure, as a barrier to entry knowing that they will not have competition spring up in the middle of the night.

The couple had a lifelong dream of owning their own business. After 18 months of extensive research, they approached several commercial banks for start-up finance and were turned down by all of them. Determined not to give up, they eventually managed to secure a loan of $1.3 million dollars from a local development bank.