Ejoobi, an entrepreneur incubated at Maxum Business Incubator, has designed a platform where cloud services meet USSD and SMS. Ejoobi enables job seekers, without internet, to SMS their CVs and supporting documents using any mobile device. It connects job seekers to recruiters who in turn forward vacancy adverts via SMS to Ejoobi subscribers. Ejoobi provides its subscribers with secure and reliable cloud storage services, which enable a Thabo (living in rural areas with limited internet) to store his CV and documents. These documents are retrievable at the touch of a button, by accessing USSD using only airtime and not data.

With poor penetration of internet in Africa, Ejoobi’s mission is to introduce innovative solutions to the SMS and USSD platform so as to solve unique African problems. The Ejoobi team in incubated at the Maxum Business Incubator, which offers an enabling environment wherein start-ups from knowledge-intensive sectors are fast-tracked to compete in the global village. The Maxum Business incubator programme focuses on ICT, Smart industries and Advanced Manufacturing.

The programme is between six to nine months in duration and the main incubation programme (Maxum Core) extends to three years. During pre-incubation, entrepreneurs are assisted to refine their business cases and finalize their prototypes. Whereas, in main incubation, the focus is commercialization, growth in revenues and sustainability. Within incubation, entrepreneurs are categorized as pre-commercial, companies that are still in the initial development stage of their business, or they are referred to as, commercial, those being companies that have secured an investment or made a sale to a willing customer.