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Who it’s forFor international expansion

Set up your business in a new country.

Compare markets, choose how you want to enter, see the setup steps and find local support.

Start for free How it works
  • Compare entry options
  • See setup requirements
  • Find local support

Your expansion plan stays private until you share it.

The South Africa market guide in Promote:Global, opened on Set up here: Ask about South Africa, Create a project here, an economy card with GDP of $427.2B, 64.7M people and 4.4% inflation, and an investment-climate card reading a $2.2B net outflow of foreign direct investment in 2025.

The challenge

Setting up abroad is different from exporting.

Registration, tax, hiring, licensing and banking all change by country, and each way in carries different obligations.

How it works

How expansion works on Promote:Global

  1. Step 1: Choose how to enter

    Pick a route by commitment: a distributor, licensing, a joint venture, your own operation or an employer-of-record hire. On iPhone, answer four short questions and up to three are recommended.

    The route advisor’s result in Promote:Global: your best-fit ways into South Africa, ranked on your answers of some upfront investment, balanced control and building over one to two years, with a distributor marked best fit and rated for commitment, control and risk.

  2. Step 2: Build the setup plan

    The project carries the country, the route you chose and the steps done, and names the next action with its reason: engage the investment promotion agency, because six steps follow it.

    An expansion project in Promote:Global, a Johannesburg workshop and showroom set up from Zimbabwe in South Africa as a wholly-owned subsidiary, marked Preparing at 3 of 10 steps, with the next action to engage the investment promotion agency because six steps follow it.

  3. Step 3: Find local support

    The market page counts the firms listed for that country by category, then lists the official bodies from a public directory, such as a trade and investment agency, which you approach directly.

    Investment support on the South Africa market page: a door to who is assigned there and what you may be eligible for, then official trade and investment support from a public directory, two trade and investment agencies and a regional body, to be contacted directly.

Meridian

An assistant that already knows the project.

Meridian, the built-in AI assistant, works from the country you chose, what you sell and the steps still open. It can recommend an entry method and say why, and nothing is set on your plan until you accept it.

Ask

  • Which route in fits us?
  • What’s missing before I can enter this market?
  • Which official bodies should I approach?

Do

  • Set entry method — one of eighteen, as a card you approve

  • Add a step

  • Save a note — to the project, with Undo

Every plan carries a monthly allowance of AI actions. The location and first-hire comparisons make no model call, so they cost nothing from it. Meridian is AI. Verify before acting.

Where the numbers come from

Open data, with the source under every figure.

World Bank Indicators — GDP, population, inflation, and inward investment as a share of GDP · World Bank Governance Indicators — rule of law, regulation, stability, anti-corruption, 0–100 · World Bank Business Ready — the regulatory and operating conditions for setting up · Logistics Performance Index — how well goods move, inside the location comparison · Global Trade Alert — measures in force that changed a market’s terms · UN Comtrade — what a market imports, when the move is also about selling

Employer costs are indicative ranges, not payroll advice, and investment-incentive packages are not modeled. The tools say so on screen.

Investment authorities and trade boards come from a public directory. You approach them directly, and we claim no partnership with any of them.

Firms write their own listings. We read every application, and some listings carry a mark after our own review. No mark is for sale. An introduction needs a yes on both sides.

How introductions work

Which market is next?

Tell us what you sell and whether you’ll ship there or set up there.

  • Free $0
  • Solo $29.99/mo
  • Pro $89.99/mo
Start for free See pricing

Free to start · No credit card required. Or email us at hello@promoteglobal.org