The SEDA Nelson Mandela Bay ICT Incubator (SNII) has taken on 10 new ICT and tech startups and shown a 25% growth for its clients over the past year. This comes from their performance findings, which covered the incubator from April 2014 to March 2015.
The incubator aims to drive small business enterprise development through its incubation of South Africa, Port Elizabeth-based tech startups.
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According to a press release sent to Ventureburn, 10 new tech startups were established from 11 projects in the same period. Along with these new ventures, it also has 26 SMEs in various stages of incubation. Over the period, 37 direct and 81 indirect jobs were created by new startups.
“New job creation from ICT SMEs supported by SNII rose 18% on a year-on-year basis and our clients grew their turnover on average by 25%,” said SNII Centre Manager Sipelo Lupondwana.
The findings also state that the combined turnover of SMEs and incubator beneficiaries added over R5-million to PE’s regional economy. Additionally, 100% of incubated enterprises supported by SNII survived their first year in the market, while 94.5% were still in operation in their second year of business.
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“Firstly, we will continue to be the place where Port Elizabeth’s technology entrepreneurs, young ICT businesses, and inventors with ideas come to in order to be developed into successful enterprises,” added Lupondwana. He went on to say, “We have world-class office facilities and spaces, IT infrastructure and connectivity to reduce the cost of doing business. We also have good business coaches, mentors and business support services in place.”
The incubator also wants to create meaningful partnerships blue-chip companies, such as Microsoft, IBM South Africa, and Altec in order to share ideas, leadership, and help groom the next generation of tech entrepreneurs. “We will also look at creating partnerships with international universities, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” adds Lupondwana.
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