Welcome to the Silicon Cape!
October 9, 2009 
6 Comments
The Silicon Cape in
itiative, a technology incubation and venture capital project, was launched during an exhilarating five hour event held in Camps Bay on Thursday morning. Nearly 400 entrepreneurs, investors, local government, media and other community participants attended the event after having to request invitations from the project’s website beforehand.
The initiative is the brainchild of Vinny Lingham, founder and CEO of Yola and Justin Stanford, venture capitalist and CEO of the 4D Innovations Group.
The term “Silicon Cape” is a spin-off of “Silicon Valley“, a metonym for the high-tech sector in Northern California where companies such as Google, Ebay, Yahoo!, Apple and Intel are based. The initiative aims at creating an ecosystem where local talent and ideas can be transformed into start-up companies, thereby establishing the Cape as the emerging Silicon Valley of Africa.
The event started with a discussion by Stanford and Lingham on their vision and how they formed it from Lingham’s apartment in Silicon Valley.
Vinny Lingham, founder and CEO of Yola and co-founder of Silicon Cape
From the word go the conference center was filled with an air of excitement. They also stressed that the Cape has all the ingredients: “its a beautiful place to live, it has great universities, it has a personality and culture, an entrepreneurial community, and a willingness from local government to support entrepreneurs.”
Andrea Bohmert, Director of HP Ventures, then gave a very realistic view on the challenges facing the vision. She touched on issues such as the amount of research output, the infrastructure, the negative perceptions surrounding South Africa and legal and regulatory issues. Her different point of view, as a foreigner, was most welcome, since this highlighted the areas that need to be targeted in order to attract foreign investors.
Venture Capitalist, Laurie Olivier, talked about the responsibility of the government to create a truly enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive and prosper in. He expressed his appreciation to Western Cape premier Helen Zille for attending the event from start to finish, indicating the local government’s commitment.
Dr Johan Rupert, next to take the stage, kept the audience entertained throughout his eloquent speech focusing on the macro-economic perspective. His idea of creating a tax-free zone in the Western Cape was accepted with an outburst of spontaneous applause. He stressed the importance of government treating the entrepreneurs well, by quoting an old Chinese saying: “Never scare the donkey that carries the china”.
Justin Stanford, CEO of the 4D Innovations Group and co-founder of Silicon Cape
An interactive session followed, during which a discussion on venture capital was lead by a panel of venture capitalists and incubators. The audience could interact through asking questions via Twitter, using the #siliconcape hashtag in their tweets. These tweets were displayed on two big screens on either side of the stage. This setup was highly successful and contributed to the lively feel of the event.
Next up Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chair of the Technology Innovation Agency, received a much deserved standing ovation after talking about the government’s responsibility in creating an enabling environment for entrepreneurs. She committed to take up the issues raised with national government and seeing to it that they are resolved. Her positive attitude is best summed up by her opening phrase: “This day will be forever marked in the calendar of South Africa’s innovation as the beginning. I am really excited by what I have heard here today.”
The proceedings concluded with premier Helen Zille’s address. She too showed an abundance of motivation: “I have been fascinated and inspired and its not often that has happened, because I have been around the block a couple of times.” She also focused on the importance of keeping local talent rooted: “If we create the right environment and the right context, we will see lots of expats following their heads and their hearts and returning home, which is where they want to be.” She vouched her commitment to the 15 year dream and concluded, before leaving the stage to a standing ovation: “We heard Barak Obama say ‘Yes, we can’. I say ‘Afri-can!’”
If you want to get involved in the Silicon Cape initiative, join the social network on their website or follow their twitter feed.
Silicon Cape has already proved useful, in that it has helped us, bidorbuy.co.za, get in touch with a university project to help develop entrepreneurs using the internet. Thanks for this article, it led us to look into Silcon Cape, and made the connection for us to explore.
Silicon Cape has already proved useful, in that it has helped us, bidorbuy.co.za, get in touch with a university project to help develop entrepreneurs using the internet. Thanks for this article, it led us to look into Silcon Cape, and made the connection for us to explore.
A technology hub like Silicon Cape is exactly what South Africa needs to take us further both in terms of technology and economy. And I agree that the Cape is the perfect location for such a venture in Africa.
A technology hub like Silicon Cape is exactly what South Africa needs to take us further both in terms of technology and economy. And I agree that the Cape is the perfect location for such a venture in Africa.
Update -> The official number of attendees exceeded 500.
Update -> The official number of attendees exceeded 500.