New Business Accelerator programme
BASA launches new Business Accelerator programme to help creative businesses scale.
Business and Arts South Africa (BASA), in partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), is expanding its support for the creative economy with the launch of the BASA Business Accelerator, a four-month programme designed to help established creative businesses move from proven commercial traction towards investment, procurement opportunities and sustainable growth.
The programme responds to a specific gap in the creative economy: businesses that have moved beyond the start-up and incubation stage, have paying customers and demonstrated revenue, but require targeted support, market access and commercial connections to unlock their next stage of growth.
Unlike an incubator or traditional entrepreneurship programme, the BASA Business Accelerator is not focused on developing business ideas, creating minimum viable products or providing foundational business training. Instead, the programme is designed around commercial outcomes, targeted intervention and access to opportunities.
The programme will support approximately 50 established creative businesses in its inaugural cohorts. Participating businesses will be assessed across areas including commercial traction, financial performance, market opportunity, management capability, operational scalability, governance, compliance, investment and procurement readiness, sales capability and delivery capacity.
Based on these assessments, businesses will receive targeted support and coaching through specialist Scale Labs focused on areas including financial modelling, capital strategy, governance, investor documentation, supplier readiness, pricing and margin optimisation, delivery capacity and corporate sales.
“The BASA Business Accelerator represents a new kind of intervention for BASA and responds to an important gap in the growth journey of creative businesses. There are businesses that have already proven that their models work, but are not yet positioned to access the opportunities available to them at scale. The role of the Accelerator is to identify what is holding those businesses back, mobilise the right expertise and networks, and create pathways to capital, markets and strategic partnerships” – – Beth Arendse, CEO, Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) The Accelerator will offer two primary pathways: Investment Readiness, for businesses seeking growth capital, and Procurement Readiness, for businesses seeking corporate customers and contracts.
Through the BASA Business Accelerator, BASA and DSAC are strengthening the pipeline of creative businesses that are positioned not only to survive, but to become commercially sustainable, investment-ready and capable of contributing to growth and job creation across the creative economy.
Applications are now open
Applications open: Monday, 31 August 2026
Applications close: Sunday, 20 September 2026 at 23:59
Apply here: BASA Business Accelerator Application
For application queries, contact Sibusisiwe Tshabalala, Programmes Coordinator, at sibusisiwe@basa.co.za.
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The BASA Business Accelerator programme is supported by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC).
