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Success Story

Breaze Delivery Pitch & Polish 2024 Winner

P&P 2024

“Winning Nedbank Pitch & Polish in 2024 was massive – not just financially as a result of the R650 000 in cash, but in terms of the business opportunities it allowed us to unlock.”

July 18, 2025
Logo pitch polish

Breaze Delivery owners, Braden Snyman and Avi Maja, share how they spent the prize money and the impact it has had on their business. 

Winning Nedbank Pitch & Polish in 2024 was massive – not just financially as a result of the R650 000 in cash, but in terms of the business opportunities it allowed us to unlock. We approached the prize money very strategically. A good portion of the prize money went into refining and strengthening our tech platform. We also used it to bring in a few key team members, people who could help us scale smartly and build the kind of internal capacity we knew we’d need to grow sustainably. 

The two-year business acceleration bursary with Raizcorp has been one of the most valuable parts of this journey. That level of structure, mentorship and accountability pushed us to shift from a hustle mindset into real leadership. We introduced proper financial systems, built performance metrics and started shaping a company culture that reflects our long-term goals. We’ve also become far more data-driven. Now, we make decisions based on actual trends and insights, not just gut feel. That’s helped us move faster, smarter and with more confidence. 

Hyperlocal logistics & employment opportunities

South Africa’s delivery landscape is evolving rapidly. With the growth in e-commerce and increasing mobile adoption, even in peri-urban and rural areas, the need for inclusive last-mile delivery is bigger than ever. We see a huge opportunity in hyperlocal logistics, particularly in townships and informal economies. Our goal is to stay ahead by investing in smart technologies like AI-driven route optimisation, building community-based delivery networks and offering real-time tracking. But honestly, what sets us apart isn’t the tech – it’s our people. By training and employing local youth as delivery agents, we create real trust and local opportunity. That’s where others only see risk – and we see potential. 

Expansion is part of our long-term vision. Right now, we’re focused on strengthening our footprint in high-density township areas across South Africa. But we’re already exploring regional opportunities in Africa. Our approach won’t be a simple copy-and-paste. We’re taking the time to understand each market’s specific needs, building local partnerships, and making sure our model is adapted to truly add value in each community we enter. 

Over 100 000 deliveries & game-changing advice

We’ve had some amazing milestones so far. Last year, we completed over 100 000 deliveries, a huge moment for our team. We’ve also managed to cut down our integration time with new customers from a few days to just minutes. These are the kinds of shifts that make a massive difference in how we scale and deliver. 

Working with our Raizcorp mentor during the Nedbank Pitch & Polish programme was a truly transformative experience. The most game-changing piece of advice we received was to “fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” That one line shifted our entire mindset. We stopped holding too tightly to our original business model and instead began refining it based on real user pain points and actual data. Our mentor also showed us how to structure a pitch in a way that connects emotionally without losing commercial clarity. That helped us not only tighten our business model but also learn how to tell our story in a way that resonated deeply with the judges, investors and future partners. 

Looking back, this journey has been filled with lessons, challenges and some truly proud moments. And we’re just getting started. Breaze Delivery was built to solve real problems in real communities – and that mission keeps driving us forward, one delivery at a time. 

Expansion is part of our long-term vision. Right now, we’re focused on strengthening our footprint in high-density township areas across South Africa. But we’re already exploring regional opportunities in Africa. Our approach won’t be a simple copy-and-paste. We’re taking the time to understand each market’s specific needs, building local partnerships, and making sure our model is adapted to truly add value in each community we enter. 

Success Stories

Florence Duval

Florence Duval is a seasoned strategist with over 25 years of experience leading sustainability, stakeholder engagement and social impact initiatives across public and private sectors. 

As CEO and founder of IN TOUCH, she guides cross-sectoral teams to deliver high-impact advisory solutions that strengthen institutions, enable public-private partnerships and secure both the legal and social licence to operate. Her expertise spans compliance, community development, issue management and sponsorship development – always anchored in sustainable development principles. 

A former mining executive and committed social activist, Florence is known for her ability to build meaningful partnerships, navigate complex regulatory environments and drive transformative impact through purpose-driven leadership

Monique Chinnah

Monique is a curious, serial questioner who wants to take the mystique out of business and finance to make it practical and relevant to entrepreneurs. ‘Why?’, ‘Why not?’ and ‘How can we help, for real?' are her favourite questions.

She is the Senior Manager of Segment Design and Development in Retail Relationship Banking at Nedbank, and she is responsible for ensuring that small businesses are fully supported through Banking and Beyond® solutions and most particularly as the product owner of the SimplyBiz® platform. Monique believes that keeping business strategy simple, real and practically implementable is fundamental to success. She also believes in the power of fun. If you don’t like what you’re doing, don’t do it!

Monique draws on her own entrepreneurial journeys and extensive management roles in various industries to ensure that solutions are conceptualised and delivered with small-business owners’ needs in mind.

She believes in life-long learning and being a sponge through immersions in over 300 000 businesses, various tertiary and educational programmes, and she is a YouTube and social-media hustler. In 2012 she was awarded a scholarship through Goldman Sachs UK to attend the 10 000 Women entrepreneurial programme through the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and she has been recognised with several Top Achiever Awards in Nedbank.

Allon Raiz

Allon Raiz is regarded both locally and globally as a pioneer and maverick in the business-incubation industry. He is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp which, according to The Economist, is the only genuine incubator in Africa and which currently supports over 500 businesses.

A two-times PhD dropout, Allon is the best-selling author of three entrepreneurial books. He hosted the first national radio show on entrepreneurship in South Africa in 2004; wrote and hosted the first South African prime-time entrepreneurship reality television show; and created and published an entrepreneurial cartoon strip. Allon is currently hosting his 15th season of the popular The Big Small Business Show on Business Day TV.

Allon is a co-founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation South Africa and Rural Roots, and is on the advisory and judging boards of numerous local and international NGOs and entrepreneurial awards. His passion for and focus on the development of entrepreneurs attracted the attention of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which, in 2008, recognised Allon as a Young Global Leader.

As an accomplished international speaker, Allon was invited to speak at the 2011 WEF Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland. In 2011, he became a member of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship, making him one of 15 recognised global experts in the field. More recently, he became a member of the WEF’s Global Future Council.

In 2013, Allon received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Oliver Transformation and Empowerment Awards. The following year, he became the country winner, regional winner and continental winner of the Titan Award for Building Nations.

Between 2014 and 2016, Allon guest lectured at Oxford University where he was recognised as the Oxford University Saïd Business School’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

In 2015, Allon received an invitation from the White House, on behalf of President Barack Obama, to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Kenya.

Nonkqubela Maliza

Nonkqubela Maliza is the director of Corporate and Government Affairs at Volkswagen Group Africa. She has held the position since 2006 and also chairs the VW Community Trust and VWSA BEE Initiatives Trust. 

Prior to this, Nonkqubela was a senior executive at Metallon Corporation, a pan-African mining and financial services company with operations in South Africa and Zimbabwe. She also served as a chief director at the Department of Trade and Industry and has strong experience in the financial services sector. 

Nonkqubela holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, a BA Honours in Economics from Rhodes University and a BA in Psychology and Economics from Rhodes University.