Derrick
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The recession has forced businesses in certain sectors curb their desire to invest in new ventures but IT doesn’t appear to be one of them.
Here Be Dragons (HBD), Mark Shuttleworth’s venture capital company, is eyeing out local companies, and earmarked the technology sector specifically, in the hopes of investing between R10 to R25-million. One of the things HBD is looking for is an early stage business with scalability, possibly into international markets.
“Although the focus is on all companies with innovative products with the potential to expand internationally, experience has shown that technology remains a sector in which scalable companies have a high potential to expand fast,” explains HBD CEO, Julia Fourie.
Fourie believes that there are many talented South African businesses with the potential to make it on a global stage but fail due to lack of guidance, funding and expert knowledge.
“These companies often try to grow too quickly or to go the road alone,” she says. “Success takes courage, and in partnering with our investment companies, we offer not only capital but expert advice and mentorship too.
It’s great to see that money is still flowing into local businesses, especially start-ups, as this will not only encourage innovation but it will have the added benefit of creating more jobs.
Hopefully as bandwidth caps start to increase even more innovation will be possible in South Africa as people begin to realize what can be done online.
Here Be Dragons (HBD), Mark Shuttleworth’s venture capital company, is eyeing out local companies, and earmarked the technology sector specifically, in the hopes of investing between R10 to R25-million. One of the things HBD is looking for is an early stage business with scalability, possibly into international markets.
“Although the focus is on all companies with innovative products with the potential to expand internationally, experience has shown that technology remains a sector in which scalable companies have a high potential to expand fast,” explains HBD CEO, Julia Fourie.
Fourie believes that there are many talented South African businesses with the potential to make it on a global stage but fail due to lack of guidance, funding and expert knowledge.
“These companies often try to grow too quickly or to go the road alone,” she says. “Success takes courage, and in partnering with our investment companies, we offer not only capital but expert advice and mentorship too.
It’s great to see that money is still flowing into local businesses, especially start-ups, as this will not only encourage innovation but it will have the added benefit of creating more jobs.
Hopefully as bandwidth caps start to increase even more innovation will be possible in South Africa as people begin to realize what can be done online.