Monkeybiz is a Cape Town non-profit that has used traditional beadwork to uplift communities for about 26 years. It works with more than 100 beaders from the city's townships. For most of them, Monkeybiz is a main source of income, and many have no other income beyond government grants. The organisation earns revenue in three ways: A small shop at the V&A Waterfront, wholesale (the biggest sales channel, with many exports to the US and elsewhere), and custom projects with designers and artists.

MonkeyBiz would like the LSE team to focus on two key areas: Marketing, which can only rely on a small budget, so Monkeybiz gets far less exposure than similar businesses, and funding limits make it hard to grow. The second challenge is production: Everything is done by hand with no automated or online system, which leads to frequent errors.

Monkeybiz is still recovering from the Covid-crisis which forced it to give up its large retail shop in Bo-Kaap for a warehouse in a far less frequented area of Cape Town, Paarden Eiland. In the medium term, MonkeyBiz’ aim is to stabilise the organisation and eventually reopen a large shop in a busy tourist area. They also want to raise brand awareness and use its current work with global designers to attract more international collaborators.