{"id":37328,"date":"2011-11-01T18:18:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T16:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=37328"},"modified":"2011-11-02T20:39:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T18:39:20","slug":"cell-c-and-google-fund-tech-start-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/37328-cell-c-and-google-fund-tech-start-ups.html","title":{"rendered":"Cell C and Google fund tech start-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cell C<\/a> announced today (1 November 2011) that they are joining forces with Google\u2019s<\/a> technology start-up incubator, Umbono, by paying the fees and providing the connectivity for the five teams chosen for the project.<\/p>\n

Four teams have already been selected by Google and its angel investors, Cell C said, and at least one more will be selected.<\/p>\n

In March 2011 Google launched Umbono<\/a>, which means \u201cidea\u201d in Zulu, with the aim of fostering technology start-ups in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The project promised to bring together seed capital, Google mentorship, \u201cAngel\u201d investors, local-tech stars, entrepreneurs and business leaders.<\/p>\n

Office space was provided by The Hub in Cape Town, while Cell C provided Internet connectivity in the form of 10Mbps of bandwidth.<\/p>\n

\"Cell

Cell C Umbono Speedtest.net<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cell

Cell C Umbono local test on MyBroadband Speedtest server<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cell C Umbono international tests on MyBroadband Speedtest server<\/p><\/div>\n

Today\u2019s announcement expands Cell C\u2019s involvement with the project beyond network infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Start-ups that receive support from Umbono not only enjoy free office space and bandwidth for six months, Google also previously announced that they get US$25,000 to $50,000 (R185,000 to R400,000, depending on the exchange rate) in funding from Umbono\u2019s panel of angel investors and Google<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n

Google is collaborating with the Silicon Cape Initiative, a networking forum, as well as the Bandwidth Barn, a business incubator launched in 2000, to ensure that Umbono\u2019s teams are well positioned to succeed.<\/p>\n

*Google said that Umbono applications are open all year round at www.google.co.za\/umbono<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The full press release is below:<\/p>\n

Cell C has joined forces with Google\u2019s innovation program called Umbono and The Hub in Cape Town to support technology entrepreneurial development in South Africa.<\/p>\n

With small and medium businesses being one of the largest drivers of employment and economic development in the country, Government is encouraging larger businesses to look at building up and supporting smaller companies.<\/p>\n

Cell C\u2019s collaboration with Google is a step towards engaging potential innovators and building the mobile internet ecosystem, that will in turn contribute to the South African economy.<\/p>\n

The Umbono program is a 6-month incubation project for technology entrepreneurs hoping to get their products off the ground. Google, together with its angel investors, have selected three teams of entrepreneurs \u2013 and will select at least two more – to benefit from the incubation process.<\/p>\n

The application process is open year round and is accessible at: www.google.co.za\/umbono.<\/p>\n

The chosen teams will receive seed capital, and mentorship from some of the world\u2019s and SA\u2019s hottest business leads to help them develop a solid business plan and prepare to get their products off the ground. It is expected that at the end of the six months, the most successful teams will receive follow-on funding from the local venture capital community or from investors overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cUmbono aims to bring together all the elements necessary for tech start-ups to trial their ideas and ultimately attract additional rounds of investment to grow their businesses,\u201d says Luke Mckend<\/a>, Google South Africa Country Manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen some great applications to the Umbono programme, and we\u2019re delighted to welcome these particularly innovative start-ups onboard. Throughout the programme, teams will not only benefit from local business mentorship, but also from the extensive mentorship network of Google experts\u201d.<\/p>\n

The five teams will be housed at The Hub in Cape Town, where they will have access to business facilities, like a boardroom and Internet access, which would otherwise have been difficult for the start-ups to fund themselves.<\/p>\n

Cell C will be paying the fees for all five teams to be housed at The Hub and has installed state-of-the-art connectivity to ensure that the teams have everything they need to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cA project like this has not been undertaken in SA before, which is why Cell C joined forces with Google to make this a reality. Because innovation is a key value within Cell C as an organization, it makes sense that we put our efforts behind a project that encourages new ideas,\u201d says Simon Camerer<\/a>, Cell C Executive Head of Marketing.<\/p>\n

As part of the program, the teams will have access to Cell C product developers as mentors, and Cell C will have access to on the latest tools local developers would like to see brought to market. \u201cThe new technologies that come out of the program keep Cell C at the bleeding edge of technology innovation. These technologies will not only benefit people from across the globe, but also Cell C\u2019s customers,\u201d says Camerer.<\/p>\n

Cell C hopes that the project will be a blueprint for other projects and encourage the growth of a wider variety of mobile, internet and technology entrepreneurs in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith government supporting the millennium development goals of job creation and economic development, we are confident that the innovations that come out of the project will contribute towards on social and economic development,\u201d says Mercia Maserumule<\/a>, Cell C\u2019s CSI manager.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Google\u2019s plan to boost SA\u2019s small tech businesses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five technology projects selected by Google and its panel of angel investors will receive funding from Cell C<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":33238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,17],"tags":[355,167,35,6326,6324,6322],"class_list":["post-37328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-technology","tag-cell-c","tag-google","tag-headline","tag-incubator","tag-start-ups","tag-umbono"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37330,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37328\/revisions\/37330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}