Cleola Kunene

Cleola Kunene is an award-winning Start-up to Scale-up investment and growth expert. She is a minority partner in a debt and equity fund and also serves as Head of SME Development at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Cleola drives Economic development solutions, with a specific focus on SME growth, funding access, international market access, red tape reduction and strategic relationships, with a particular focus on public and private partnerships. She currently serves as G20, StartUp20 Deputy Chair for Trade and Market Access. Cleola also serves on various boards including as Chairwoman and as an Independent Investment Committee director for Edge Ventures. She was the winner of Future Leaders Awards, Entrepreneurial leader 2024 and the winner of the Mail and Guardian Winner, Women of Power for 2023.
Before joining the JSE, Cleola was a co-founder of Say Siyabonga an e-commerce business and River Life a water bottling company, she also founded Blaq Circle Consulting. She also worked for various multinational organizations such as MultiChoice, T-Systems and Media24.
Cleola holds an Executive Development qualification from DUKE Fuqua School of Business and a master’s degree in business administration from Henley Business school. She also holds a communications qualification from University of Reunion Island, a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics, and a Financial Accounting qualification from Tshwane University of Technology and a post graduate qualification from University of the Witwatersrand (WITS).