The Cape Innovative and Technology Initiative (CiTi) — which is responsible for projects like the Bandwidth Barn and CapaCiti — has just announced the appointment of former COO Ian Merrington as the new CEO.
Merrington has a strong background in advertising and consultancy, as well as being Group Financial Director of BBDO and COO of iKineo.
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CiTi Chairman Greg Reis notes that “Since its inception in 1998, CiTi has been able to build upon the passion and talents of a number of executives who have each worked towards the vision of developing Cape Town and the region as a global technology cluster, a vibrant hub for innovation and a significant contributor to unlocking the region’s potential for economic growth”.
Joshin Raghubar, Chairperson of the Bandwidth Barn, sees an exciting road ahead. “One of our key strategic goals is to partner with leading innovation companies to expand our reach and effectiveness by connecting the Cape innovation sector to other leading hubs throughout South Africa and beyond”. While the main Bandwidth Barn incubator is based in Woodstock, Cape Town, additional Barns were also opened in Khayalitsha and Bellville last year, with additional Barns planned for this year.
CiTi’s main skills initiative, CapaCiTi, has been recognised as a key contributor to the development of scarce skills for the technology sector, while its Velociti enterprise development programmes have supported hundreds of SMME’s and entrepreneurs through the high-risk early stage of their business development.
Small, medium and micro enterprises participating in CiTi’s VeloCiTi programmes have been shown to have more than double the five year survival rate of start-ups within the technology sector as a whole.
