Your Funding Readiness
Good Progress
You're on the right track! Improve a few areas to boost your score.
Document Checklist
Find out why funders say no — before they say it.
Score your business against the criteria DFIs, grant programmes and lenders actually assess. 15 minutes. Free.
Quick Readiness Insights
Recommended Actions
Your Funding Readiness
Good Progress
You're on the right track! Improve a few areas to boost your score.
Document Checklist
Quick Readiness Insights
Recommended Actions
Know where you stand
Scored against criteria funders actually publish
Know what's missing
Every gap ranked by impact, not alphabetically
Know before you apply
Fix it before a funder finds it
Four steps. From guessing to fundable.
We don't approve funding. On the DFI and grant side, we make sure that when you apply, nothing in your file is the reason you're declined. On the private side, we introduce you to our PE and alternative lending partners once the numbers hold up.
SCORE
See where you stand against real application criteria. 15 minutes, no documents needed.
BUILD
Business plan, financial model and investor pack, built to what your target funder actually asks for.
FIX
Close the gaps the score exposed, in order of impact. Numbers, governance, structure.
APPLY
DFI and grant programmes: you submit, with a file that holds up. Private capital: we position you with our PE and alternative lending partners.
The score is the easy part. This is the useful part.
Every gap, ranked by impact, with the fix next to it.
Fundable — but not by everyone.
Three gaps account for most of the missing 22 points.
Milestone Tracker
Top Improvement Opportunities
What's in your report
Your score, against published criteria
The documents funders ask for
A financial model that survives questions
Funder fit — DFI programmes, PE partners and alternative lenders
A person to talk it through with
Your score over time
Scored against the criteria that actually matter
Built from the published application requirements of the NEF, SEFA, IDC, DBSA, the DTIC incentive programmes and commercial lenders.
AboveBusiness is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government funder. We use their published criteria as the scoring index. Our private capital relationships are separate and disclosed upfront.
Who's behind the score
AboveBusiness Consulting, led by Doryn Dippenaar. Twenty years of strategic leadership in JSE-listed environments before moving into boutique advisory. 50+ client engagements across manufacturing, food processing, automotive, technology, training and professional services.
We've sat on both sides of the table — inside listed businesses, and across from funders. The scoring model is built from what we've watched get approved and what we've watched get declined.
And if the score finds gaps
Most advisors hand you a report and leave. We don't.
Where the score exposes gaps, we help close them — the business plan that holds up, the financial model that survives questions, and the operational changes that make the numbers true rather than optimistic.
That's the difference between being told you're not fundable, and becoming fundable.
Find out where you stand before a funder tells you.
15 minutes. Free. No documents required.