Sunday Times E-Edition

Profile: Founder and director of iMED Tech Nneile Nkholise has been voted among the top female innovators in

Founder and director of iMED Tech Nneile Nkholise, voted among the top female innovators in Africa by the World Economic Forum in 2016 and 2018, chats to DENISE MHLANGA

What started as research on how technology can be used to create medical prostheses resulted in the “accidental” establishment of iMed Tech in 2015. Mechanical engineer, innovator and iMed Tech founder Nneile Nkholise says she was pursuing her post-graduate studies and researching the 3D application of additive manufacturing in medical prosthesis fabrication.

“I was curious about how to apply this technology in real-world case studies that could translate into high growth businesses that create positive effects on the economic and healthcare sectors,” says Nkholise.

She chose to focus on an area close to her heart – breast cancer – resulting in the Neyne breastform, a product designed for women who have undergone mastectomies. The prosthesis is light, comfortable and as natural as a real breast.

iMed Tech specialises in designing and manufacturing medical prosthetics, bio-implants, and surgical planning models for people who have lost body parts to diseases or accidents.

Her innovative work with iMed Tech has won her numerous awards, including Forbes Africa under 30 (2018), South African Youth of the Year issued by the Office of the President (2017), Industrialist of the year in Southern Africa (CNBC Africa 2018), South African representative at Global Entrepreneurship Summit (2016), Africa’s top Female Innovator issued by the World Economic Forum (2016), and Top 5 winner in the SAB Foundation social innovation awards in 2015.

Nkholise is a firm believer that young African women could be leaders of future healthcare and innovation globally and that society should never give up on children born differently. With innovation, children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, for example, have a fair chance of changing the world.

GLOBAL BUSINESS

Nkholise, now based in San Francisco in the United States of America, has gone on to found another business and continues to be involved in entrepreneurship initiatives.

She left iMed Tech in 2019 to become an entrepreneur in residence at Harambeans, a group of African innovators working together to unlock start-ups in Africa.

In August 2020, Nkholise founded THOLA, an online platform for organic agricultural commodities share-trading marketplace that connects global investors and high yield agricultural commodities.

“Thola enables investors to purchase fractional shares in organic agricultural assets like high production bulls, and earn returns from their semen sales, equally, investors can trade shares through peer-to-peer share trading,” she says.

Nkholise says this business has been years in the making. In the last 10 years, she has travelled to over 30 countries globally and learnt more about rare agricultural crops and livestock. Over time, she built a private portfolio of investments in rare high yield agricultural commodities.

While her millennial peers were passionate about wealth creation and investing in stocks, nonfungible tokens and cryptocurrencies, Nkholise believed there was an untapped opportunity for investing in agricultural commodities. “Currently, agriculture is not fully exposed to investors through public markets, hence Thola was established.”

CHALLENGES

Starting and running a business is no mean feat, and Nkholise likens the process to eating glass as the pain is excruciating in the beginning and you feel like giving up. “With time, it gets better and the pain is slightly pleasurable.”

She urges entrepreneurs to see their projects through, adding that women will have to work extra hard to reach the bar of excellence as this bar would never be lowered to meet them at a certain point.

Nkholise’s move to Silicon Valley was strategic, as she wanted to be closer to a community of diverse innovative founders from around the world who are driven to build impactful businesses.

“Even though I had built a successful tech company in South Africa, there was very little in the form of a community of innovators, especially women founders and I needed to feed my innovative mind, hence I moved.”

Although it was difficult to get through the regulatory hurdles of being a foreign national and adjusting to a new work environment, she has amazing work opportunities she couldn’t have imagined, such as connecting with commercial farmers.

“This move has been the biggest achievement of my career so far; I don’t think there is anything that could top that,” concludes Nkholise.

NKHOLISE IS A FIRM BELIEVER THAT YOUNG AFRICAN WOMEN COULD BE LEADERS OF FUTURE HEALTHCARE AND INNOVATION GLOBALLY.

From The Editor

en-za

2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-e-editions.pressreader.com/article/283747022829964

Arena Holdings PTY