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Meet TenderPoint, the one-stop-shop for applying for government contracts online

Looking and applying for a tender is not easy, just ask any businessman or woman who has tried and they’ll tell you it can be tedious and time-consuming.

A startup called TenderPoint is looking to lend a helping hand via its website that connects construction businesses to available public and private tenders.

TenderPoint was founded in Port Elizabeth 2012 by entrepreneur and former quantity surveyor, Asa Walesa Mazomba.

“TenderPoint started when I was running my own construction management company. My industry peers and I decided to consciously collaborate and actively search for opportunities which we could all share in,” Mazomba explains.

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“We are not just simply a tender notification service but a platform for creating tenders, publishing them and managing tender submissions. Think Hippo (the insurance comparison platform) but for tenders,” he adds.

At first, Mazomba would manually buy newspapers, look for tenders and send them to an email list of colleagues in the construction industry.

“Eventually I had contractor after contractor contacting me asking if they could be added to my database. That was the seed. My email list exploded to include thousands of interested parties which eventually led to me formally establishing TenderPoint as a company.“ he says.

Now, the site is primarily a business to business system where tender opportunities in the private and public sector can be uploaded for contractors and subcontracts on leads they source.

Registering to have all listed tenders sent to you is free, but if you want to narrow it down to specific ones you’d be interested in, you’ll be charged an annual fee of R499.

Service providers can list themselves on the TenderPoint directory so they can easily be located on the site either by provincial or national tender providers for R999 and R4 999 respectively.

There are similar sites to TenderPoint in South Africa, namely OpenTendersRedFish and government’s eTenders.

TenderPoint has already been recognised for its innovation after securing second place in the Engen Pitch and Polish 2014 startups competition.

“While our concept was solid from the beginning, one of our biggest barriers as a startup was funding. Those doors eventually opened up for us when we received national exposure through our performance during the Pitch and Polish competition,” Mazomba says about what the competition meant for his startup.

The site has grown since those early days of emailing tenders to a handful of people. There are currently over 5 000 contractors registered on TenderPoint and an average of 100 construction leads processed per month with 30% being awarded to emerging contractors.

“TenderPoint has exceeded all my expectations. It’s mind-blowing to me that a simple concept ballooned to collaborating with thousands of contractors. It has been a vehicle that’s allowed me to make my mark on the industry in ways I never thought possible. It gives me great pleasure to know that what I do has a small hand in helping someone seize an opportunity, and in so doing, helped to create employment for those who truly need it,” Mazomba concludes.

 

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