2018 Top 35-under-35 Finalist: Scelo Makhatini

Scelo Makhathini began his professional career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then later pursued his profound passion for investment banking after joining Investec Corporate Finance.

After having started his very first business with just only R70 when he was 14 years old, his keen interest in entrepreneurship and business led him to Nedbank Private Equity where he was responsible for investing equity capital in acquisitions, buyouts and the expansion of mid-market unlisted businesses in Southern Africa.

Through his sharp eye for business and growing interest in disruptive technologies, Scelo left his lucrative investment banking career and took to market with his innovative tech company, www.linkdpro.com, which uses computer algorithms to match the ever-growing number of freelance professionals to companies looking for niche expertise for project-based assignments. LinkdPro is disrupting the 100-year old workforce model and has fundamentally changed the way businesses connect with knowledge workers in the new sharing economy. His on-demand, ‘Uber-for-professionals’, model is helping businesses connect with a global network of freelance professionals and experts in real-time, enabling businesses to have on-demand access to the best talent, wherever it is.

LinkdPro is currently being used by top South African companies listed on the JSE, multinational conglomerates operating in South Africa and companies across the globe in countries as far as Brazil, United States, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Australia etc., and has connected freelance professionals with work opportunities in excess of R30, million since its inception.

As a talent marketplace at the forefront of connecting companies with highly in-demand skills, LinkdPro’s ‘Uber-for-professionals’ model is having a huge social impact, especially as millions of people are finding new freelance jobs more quickly, reducing the duration of unemployment, while thousands who are inactive or semi-retired are gaining additional hours. This is adding millions to the GDP of South Africa and has a significant positive social impact in a country with persistently high levels of unemployment and low economic participation rates.