Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Accendio is an economic development consultancy focused on building and developing entrepreneurial ecosystems through innovative finance and product development. With impactful organisations in mind, Accendio caters to both social enterprises and start-up environments. Founded in 2020 by Rowan Spazzoli, Accendio has since pooled blended finance research projects, SMME finance training, social impact accelerators, as well as product development, impact measurement and systems thinking programmes into its knowledge base, better serving its clients to solve economic world problems.

Home to the Sparks, the young professionals and leaders in the economic development space, Accendio fuels the passion towards building the leaders of the future, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and capacity to drive impact in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally.

Accendio partners with impact organisations to inspire, accelerate, and initiate the local and global impact community; working in close collaboration with Yunus Social Business and the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Accendio

Meet the team

Rowan Spazzoli

Building on more than a decade of experience as a business strategy lecturer and consultant with a history of running start-ups in the economic development sector, Accendio stands on strong shoulders, founded by Rowan Spazzoli. Holding a Business Science degree in Finance and Accounting, Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting and Master’s in Economic Development, all from the University of Cape Town, Rowan’s knowledge encompasses everything required for a well-rounded approach to development economics.

While lecturing business strategy at the University of Cape Town, and running the regional University of Oxford Map The System competition with the Bertha Centre, Rowan has also founded: 

  • SMEgo—funding platform for startups

  • Loadalot—logistics startup

  • Ayabu—job platform

  • Phaphama SEDI—small enterprise development platform, matching students with township-based small businesses

Currently, Rowan’s consulting projects include:

  • Leading the curriculum development of Yunus Social Business and Reckitt’s WASH accelerator, which operates across South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya

With his previous projects including:

  • Programme management for Yunus Social Business and Reckitt’s WASH accelerator across South Africa and Nigeria

  • Developing training programmes for South African entrepreneurship hubs in collaboration with Viridian

  • Aiding the Innovative Finance team with blended finance research and seed fund management, at the Bertha Centre

  • Supporting the product development of a pan-African entrepreneur community, in conjunction with the African Management Institute

  • Research for the Innovate UK township business programme

  • Economic impact assessments for the UNDP

  • Strategising for Atlantis Greentech SEZ


Janine Rutsch

With over half a decade in traditional finance and accounting experience, Janine has transitioned to a career focused on innovative finance and systems thinking since 2021. In 2023, Accendio found itself further grounded in a high calibre of financial expertise when Janine joined the team. With a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) qualification, and MCom in Development Finance, both from the University of Cape Town, Janine masterfully applies her skills to the field of impact, and more specifically social entrepreneurship.

Dedicated to sharing systems thinking and innovative finance knowledge for inclusive development in Africa, Janine led the first African team to win the University of Oxford’s Map the System competition, by applying systems thinking methodologies to the issue of financial exclusion in the South African mortgage market.

Further contributing her knowledge, Janine’s dissertation explored the scalability of Impact-Linked Finance, a strategy tailored for social enterprises to support their impact objectives, while working with pioneers of the strategy, Roots of Impact.

Together, Rowan and Janine co-founded The Sparks Impact Fellowship, designed to inspire, accelerate, and initiate young impact leaders and their careers, equipped with training in systems thinking, Impact Measurement & Management, innovative finance, and storytelling, as well as practical experience with social entrepreneurship.

Partners

  • University of Cape Town

  • African Management Institute

  • Relativ Impact

  • Roots of Impact

  • The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

  • TechnoServe

  • Viridian