Takealot has opened applications for its 2026 Made Local challenge, run with the Technology Innovation Agency, with a prize pool of R1.7-million. The winner gets R1-million, the runner-up R500,000 and third place R200,000.

Twenty shortlisted entrepreneurs go through a 10-week hybrid accelerator of training and mentorship. It is open to SMEs that have traded for more than a year, already sell on Takealot, and make their products locally. Applications close on 20 September.

The scoring is the part worth reading. Takealot has dropped the traditional judging panel. This year the winners are decided by actual business performance: sales generated on Takealot.com during a live sales phase, customer ratings, and participation across the 10 weeks. That turns the competition into a controlled test of whether a product can sell at volume on the platform, with the prize money going to whoever proves it.

The timing is not incidental. The de minimis import concession that made Shein and Temu cheap is being closed, and both are shifting to local fulfilment and South African sellers on marketplaces like this one. A programme that trains local manufacturers to sell on Takealot, judged on real sales, is Takealot building up the domestic supply side of its own marketplace at the moment; cross-border competition is being forced onto the same ground.

It’s also a step towards one of the township economy growth strategies we highlighted the other day.

MyBroadband reported the prize breakdown and the eligibility rules, and quoted Takealot Group CEO Frederick Zietsman saying the country does not have a problem innovating, but that many founders lack the support, skills and networks to turn a product into a scalable business. Takealot hosts the applications and the full programme detail. Group executive Tshepo Marumule framed the TIA partnership as a way to unlock economic growth and drive local manufacturing.

For a local manufacturer, this is a genuinely good deal, and it is worth being clear-eyed about why it is on offer. Takealot needs more local sellers who can hold volume, because the tax loophole that let cheap imports flood in is closing and the next phase of competition is about local fulfilment. Training South African makers to sell well on the platform strengthens Takealot's marketplace at exactly the right moment.

That doesn’t reduce the value to a founder, since the mentorship, the exposure to millions of shoppers and up to R1-million all stand on their own. It does mean the sharpest prize is not the cash.

It is the sales data from the live phase, which tells you whether your product moves at volume before you have bet the business on it, and online retail has just passed a tenth of all retail turnover. If you qualify, the deadline is 20 September.

You might also like our piece on how Shoprite's market cap doubled chasing the same shopper, why TFG store closures show one website beating a hundred shops, and how the Digital Skills Impact Fund co-pays employers for junior hires.

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