Enygma Ventures via its Shift Fund has made a R4.2m investment into Job Crystal, South Africa’s recruitment company.  

“Never has there been a more critical time to get South African’s back into work,” said Sarah Dusek Managing Partner and Co-Founder o Enygma Ventures. 

“We see the recruitment industry as vital in South Africa’s economic recovery enabling employers to navigate finding the right talent, quickly and efficiently, getting more people back to work sooner.”

Job Crystal was started by Karl Westvig and Kevin Laithwaite in 2009, with the intention to be a formidable online job platform that corporate companies in South Africa could use to find experienced and qualified candidates.

During the next five years they created an online platform, that was the start of the ‘AI’ movement in matching skills to specs.

Being entrepreneurs at the time Karl and Kevin decided to sell Job Crystal and focus on other businesses within the financial services space and sold the business to Kelly Louw and Sasha Knott in 2015.

This investment into Job Crystal will enable this female-led company to develop incredible technology to speed up the process of recruitment making it easier for employers to hire the right talent faster than ever, making a dent in unemployment rates at the same time.

“We’re thrilled to receive this investment from Enygma Ventures which will help us to improve our tech development and expand our footprint across the country and region,” said Job Crystal Managing Director and Co-Founder Sasha Knott.

Job Crystal Co-Founder and Operations Director Kelly Louw, said: “When we look at how high the general unemployment rate in South Africa is, which increased to 30.1%¹ during the first quarter of 2020, with 63.3%² of the 7.1 million unemployed people consisting of our youth, we have our work cut out; especially now the global Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these numbers.”

The Shift fund focuses on supporting startups, entrepreneurs and innovators who have innovative solutions that will redefine the future we all will live in post-pandemic.

In partnership with Startup Circles Enygma Ventures has launched a program to help support new and existing businesses that are focused on solving issues and systemic problems to help build a new world going forward.

The Shift fund provides either seed funding or mentoring scholarships to those selected.

Startup Circles CEO Sandras Phiri added: “Job Crystal has strongly positioned itself within the recruitment market focusing on small and medium sized businesses with a passion for solving Africa’s unemployment crisis using technology and smart problem-solving skills. This is what we at Shift Fund are looking for – businesses that combine smart, innovative strategies and technologies in scalable models.”