The Startup Grind Durban University of Technology will be hosting Blessing Nzuza. founder of Respo Technology.

Respo was founded in 2018 by Blessing Nzuza after he witnessed a stab victim bleeding on the Durban beachfront. This inspired him to develop a smartphone app that will cut the emergency medical response times which will result in more lives being saved during these type of emergencies

Nzuza has walked an interesting path since matriculating in Eshowe in 2008. It’s taken him from civil engineering studies in Durban (which he hated), to selling anti-ageing products and then to an “incredible” two-and-a-half years touring the country with Chinese traders looking for offal for export, and learning how to do business.

Later, he tried to develop an online marketplace on a shoestring budget while building websites and doing graphic design work

During this time, he was based at SmartXchange, a Durban-based incubator and enterprise development hub, and he applied to it for funding for other projects.

However, Nzuza said, those projects were deemed insufficiently innovative.

Finally, in July 2018, Respo got the nod. Nearly R500 000 from SmartXchange and the Technology Innovation Agency followed, allowing Nzuza to take on six staff members to develop the app.

In March, he won R250 000 in business support in a competition run by Ithala, a KwaZulu-Natal-based development finance corporation.