South African technology accelerator Sw7 has opened applications for its Cape Town accelerator programme. Sw7 Cape Town will be a replication of the recently completed programme in Rosebank, Johannesburg at Standard Bank’s new incubator.
According to Sw7 co-founder Odette Jones, it has been a year since the organisation ran an event in Cape Town. Since then, the ecosystem has changed a lot.
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“We have seen a significant increase in the quality of the applications as well as in the support being offered by the players in the sector,” adds Jones.
Read more: Sw7 partners with UKTI to take SA entrepreneurs to London
In a press release sent to Ventureburn, Sw7 has been appointed the only Microsoft BizSpark Plus partners in the region, which enables the operation to offer up to US$120 000 in free hosting to qualifying businesses. “On top of this, the relationship with Standard Bank is bearing fruit and strong support from Microsoft means we have more to offer the Founder,” adds Jones.
According to Keith Jones, the co-founder of Sw7, the majority of businesses attending these events are post-revenue or are preparing to scale up.
Jones says the events have been beneficial to businesses:
Our learnings along the way have been huge, but we are beginning to see significant results within the Sw7 Alumni pool. Many have gone on to win awards and prizes at the innovation shows and events, most have made significant progress within their businesses, and most importantly of all, as it shows the innovation market is arriving, quite a few are showing growth in multiples, rather than percentages.
The accelerator programme will consist of a nine-week part-time course, which will run from 29 October until 28 January. It will be held at Workshop17 at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town and take place on Thursday evenings.
