7 ms·

Silicon South Africa: Google Launches Incubator For African Startups

53 points by timlindinct 16y ago

abbasmehdi 16y ago
This is awesome!!!! Calling SA just Africa is not cool in the title, the economies of African countries vary as much as they do in the Americas (almost). This is wonderful news though!!!
zoul 16y ago
I'd certainly be more happy to see investors pouring $40M into some local African project than into Color. (Though it won't happen, as they offer $20—50K.)
- Vmabuza 16y ago
  I doubt you need that much($40 mill) funding in SA. Look at Mxit for example do you think they need that much? What SA needs is younger people getting in on The Techscene instead of finding safe jobs at the Banks,Lawfirms and accountancy Firms.
Sapient 16y ago
As a South African, this is really awesome news! There is however a far bigger problem than just funding here, I have never even heard of the Twangoo (Acquired by Groupon) mentioned in the article. I suppose its down to the almost total lack of any sort of hacker/startup community, and I don't know how that is going to be fixed.
- Fritzinger 16y ago
  I'm surprised you missed Twangoo. Facebook, Megavideo and my friends all blasted it at me. It's a popular site in SA.
  - Vmabuza 16y ago
    I doubt Twangoo will be around in SA for more than 2 years.Group buying will never catch in SA until there is one online payment system that EVERYBODY uses as well confidence in eCommerce. PS I read an article on mybroadband about false pricing by businesses on Twangoo.I feel that things like this will hinder the growth of the group buying model in SA.
    - Sapient 16y ago
      I agree with regard to the payment gateway, but its been a very long time since I met someone who said they wouldn't use eCommerce. Most people I know do a lot of online shopping, and I am not talking about my tech friends.
      - Vmabuza 16y ago
        Im fresh out of Varsity(UJ) and i have done surveys (informal) at varsity ,all the people i have surveyed (black,coloured and indian) have never bought a single thing online.I ask them why and they tell me ''We dont have credit cards'',i then tell them ''but you can use bank deposits '' they still wont budge.Now if these groups of people who make up majority of the population and aslo the group with the largest buying power(Gen Y) are not buying online;this means that eCommerce in SA has a long way to go. I personal don't even regard our eCommerce Market as having begun yet.But i do shop online now and then. Im also working on a couple of projects and startups to address the confidence issues that the majority and youth have about the internet. PS Iam a black Attorney lol
        Sapient 16y ago
        All true... But how many of them even have access to the internet, let alone credit cards?
        Vmabuza 16y ago
        One word OperaMini. That would be +- 11million. As for credit cards forget that people dont need those to buy online.Bank Deposits work. Just like New Zealand and China. I dont own a credit card but i buy alot from the Prophecy and Sybaritic I also got Paypal linked with my FNB. Moral of the story lets stop with the Telkom and Creditcard excuses and start building shit relevant to the Whole of SA.
- revorad 16y ago
  WooThemes is from SA - http://mixergy.com/woothemes-adriaan-pienaar/ http://mixergy.com/woothemes-adriaan-pienaar/
  - Sapient 16y ago
    Woothemes I definitely know about, but again, I only learned about them through Mixergy.
jasonkester 16y ago
Missed a word in the title: South Africa. That changes things a lot. If it were in Kenya or Nigeria, this would be a bold move. South Africa, on the other hand, is not really all that much different to a middle of the road Western country. As a result, this news is more on par with opening an incubator in New Zealand or Italy. Certainly cool to hear, but not really "Startups in the Congo" cool.
- dtegart 16y ago
  I would put it more on par with Brasil, there is still a large amount of poverty in SA.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- Alex3917 16y ago
  "South Africa, on the other hand, is not really all that much different to a middle of the road Western country." How many western countries have 30% unemployment, roving gangs of looters, and an average literacy level of 2nd/3rd grade?
  - a54552 16y ago
    roving gangs of looters I've live in South Africa my entire life, but have yet to encounter a "roving gang of looters". Citation?
    - Alex3917 16y ago
      From people in the country I've heard that there is often a lot of violence that spills out of the slums around election time.
      - acangiano 16y ago
        Not to mention that it fights with Congo for the title of rape capital of the world.
john2x 16y ago
I can't wait till something similar happens in our country. This is pretty cool.
ernestipark 16y ago
Although this is for South Africa, Google is really taking initiative in Africa in general. I was part of an MIT student group that Google funds every year to go to different African countries/universities to teach a mobile programming/entrepreneurship course. I went to Rwanda last year and the experience was fantastic. The end of the class culminates in a business plan competition using the technologies and business ideas they have learned with the winners receiving healthy cash prizes to jump start their businesses. It is a pretty amazing program that has seen the birth of lots of successful companies. It's no surprise to me that Google is investing more into Africa. Edit: Nokia also funds the program.
Untitled 16y ago
Hmmmm... The software industry in South Africa faces several problems. Probably the first problem is that computer science teaching and research sucks. This is not my opinion but based on research (http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/Local%20science%20needs%20a%20booster%20shot.pdf http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/Local%20sci...) – the relative citation index of computer science is at 0.57. Engineering is much higher (at 0.73). This problem is compounded by the fact that the financial services industry absorbs the most talented of those who study computer science. Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection. Hosting is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups. What is worse, internet start-ups cannot use the only competitive advantage that S. Africa has – fairly cheap unskilled labour (cheaper than developed countries, much more expensive than China and India). Personally, I think the local electronics industry will do better (with medium scale production). Firstly, Engineering education is still a lot better than computer science (thanks in part to international agreements such as the Washington accord which ensures (some) independence of engineering councils and keeps the government and political meddling to a minimum). Secondly, it is not as affected by the problems (bandwidth) and can at least use some advantages (cheaper skilled and unskilled labour). I know of two electronics companies which recently gained quite big multi-year contracts from large US companies. In the long term I am pessimistic though – the quality of primary and secondary education is falling (according to international rankings such as TIMSS and other studies). This creates a problem feeding the universities. The quality of research in universities is also under pressure and decreasing in most technical fields (see linked articles and personal experience as a lecturer). Unfortunately political considerations are before academic excellence. The industrial economy relies on people qualified in technical areas – and it will follow the downward trend. https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_State%282009%29.pdf https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_St...
- prr 16y ago
  > Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection. Hosting is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups. Fun fact: AT&T played a large role in f###ing SA's internet up; with dodgy political deals, lousy infrastructure support and horrific bandwidth caps. http://news.slashdot.org/story/07/08/26/1642210/How-SBC-ATampT-Pillaged-South-Africas-Economy http://news.slashdot.org/story/07/08/26/1642210/How-SBC-ATam... [edit] Slashdot article link is dead, copy here: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1090.html http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1090.html
timlindinct 16y ago
Having an incubator in South Africa is actually more noteworthy than if it were "Startups in the Congo". Here in South Africa, as other commenters pointed, we still don't have a strong software industry, neither from the academic side, nor from the hacker culture side. However, in comparison to other African countries, we have a developed infrastructure. We have fast broadband access (although only recently), and access to current technology (smartphones etc), which is not as much the case in north african countries. That means that the sort of startups could be on the same global level, as opposed to targeting different (region specific) problems or technology. We also have strong universities that could become strong software universities, given enough pressure. One other significant difference that I've come to realize after lots of thinking about it, is that South Africa is one of the very few countries in the world that is first language English...outside of America and England (Australia would be the other). This obviously makes a huge difference in terms of potential for first class membership in the same industry / network. So to some degree we have had South Africa almost hiding away as an unattended asset in this regard. This is probably acts as a large hurdle in European / Asian / other African countries and puts SA in a different category. Also noteworthy, is the fact that (as far as I know) this is Google first proper incubator project anywhere in the world. Viewing this as part of Google's "Africa Project", for all these reasons, would be looking at it from completely the wrong point of view (IMO).
Apocryphon 16y ago
Google ought to also fund startups in Chile, Italy, and Australia. Lock down every single Mediterranean climate in the world.
- a54552 16y ago
  Your point is flippant, but you do make an interesting point. There is huge demand for skilled programmers in South Africa, and very few skilled graduates. Most are employed in Johannesburg, and the majority are snapped up by the financial industry, as someone else pointed out in this thread. Convincing them to consider Cape Town will be difficult. Apart from UCT graduates, it will be interesting to see who else they manage to attract. Cape Town is a great city (and the best run municipality in the country), but it lacks the dynamism of Johannesburg. I have to wonder if "tourist" considerations, rather than serious business thinking drove the decision to put the incubator in Cape Town.
Apocryphon 16y ago
Has any group done a similar thing to promote Indian startups? Sounds like a more sustainable and helpful thing in the long run. Give a man a job in your company, and he'll work for you for the rest of a life. Teach a man to build his own company, and he'll work for himself.
mdpm 16y ago
I am applying, but I do have a few small points: - As seed capital goes, that's not going to get very far. It is, however, great that other aspects will be supported. - Given the failure rate, likely worse than international par - that's not really enough ideas being sponsored to see many graduate. - There are other incubators here, offering similar services (however, not Google's name as a sponsor, nor generally the capital) - Competing internationally from .za will be hard. Perhaps prohibitively so. Ideas with primarily local applicability will be more likely to succeed, which means ... - You should really be developing (and selling) a _business_, not an application.

53 points by timlindinct 16y ago

This is awesome!!!! Calling SA just Africa is not cool in the title, the economies of African countries vary as much as they do in the Americas (almost). This is wonderful news though!!!

zoul 16y ago

I'd certainly be more happy to see investors pouring $40M into some local African project than into Color. (Though it won't happen, as they offer $20—50K.)

Vmabuza 16y ago
I doubt you need that much($40 mill) funding in SA. Look at Mxit for example do you think they need that much? What SA needs is younger people getting in on The Techscene instead of finding safe jobs at the Banks,Lawfirms and accountancy Firms.

Sapient 16y ago

As a South African, this is really awesome news! There is however a far bigger problem than just funding here, I have never even heard of the Twangoo (Acquired by Groupon) mentioned in the article. I suppose its down to the almost total lack of any sort of hacker/startup community, and I don't know how that is going to be fixed.

Fritzinger 16y ago
I'm surprised you missed Twangoo. Facebook, Megavideo and my friends all blasted it at me. It's a popular site in SA.
- Vmabuza 16y ago
  I doubt Twangoo will be around in SA for more than 2 years.Group buying will never catch in SA until there is one online payment system that EVERYBODY uses as well confidence in eCommerce. PS I read an article on mybroadband about false pricing by businesses on Twangoo.I feel that things like this will hinder the growth of the group buying model in SA.
  - Sapient 16y ago
    I agree with regard to the payment gateway, but its been a very long time since I met someone who said they wouldn't use eCommerce. Most people I know do a lot of online shopping, and I am not talking about my tech friends.
    - Vmabuza 16y ago
      Im fresh out of Varsity(UJ) and i have done surveys (informal) at varsity ,all the people i have surveyed (black,coloured and indian) have never bought a single thing online.I ask them why and they tell me ''We dont have credit cards'',i then tell them ''but you can use bank deposits '' they still wont budge.Now if these groups of people who make up majority of the population and aslo the group with the largest buying power(Gen Y) are not buying online;this means that eCommerce in SA has a long way to go. I personal don't even regard our eCommerce Market as having begun yet.But i do shop online now and then. Im also working on a couple of projects and startups to address the confidence issues that the majority and youth have about the internet. PS Iam a black Attorney lol
      - Sapient 16y ago
        All true... But how many of them even have access to the internet, let alone credit cards?
        Vmabuza 16y ago
        One word OperaMini. That would be +- 11million. As for credit cards forget that people dont need those to buy online.Bank Deposits work. Just like New Zealand and China. I dont own a credit card but i buy alot from the Prophecy and Sybaritic I also got Paypal linked with my FNB. Moral of the story lets stop with the Telkom and Creditcard excuses and start building shit relevant to the Whole of SA.
revorad 16y ago
WooThemes is from SA - http://mixergy.com/woothemes-adriaan-pienaar/ http://mixergy.com/woothemes-adriaan-pienaar/
- Sapient 16y ago
  Woothemes I definitely know about, but again, I only learned about them through Mixergy.

jasonkester 16y ago

Missed a word in the title: South Africa. That changes things a lot. If it were in Kenya or Nigeria, this would be a bold move. South Africa, on the other hand, is not really all that much different to a middle of the road Western country. As a result, this news is more on par with opening an incubator in New Zealand or Italy. Certainly cool to hear, but not really "Startups in the Congo" cool.

dtegart 16y ago
I would put it more on par with Brasil, there is still a large amount of poverty in SA.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
Alex3917 16y ago
"South Africa, on the other hand, is not really all that much different to a middle of the road Western country." How many western countries have 30% unemployment, roving gangs of looters, and an average literacy level of 2nd/3rd grade?
- a54552 16y ago
  roving gangs of looters I've live in South Africa my entire life, but have yet to encounter a "roving gang of looters". Citation?
  - Alex3917 16y ago
    From people in the country I've heard that there is often a lot of violence that spills out of the slums around election time.
    - acangiano 16y ago
      Not to mention that it fights with Congo for the title of rape capital of the world.

john2x 16y ago

I can't wait till something similar happens in our country. This is pretty cool.

ernestipark 16y ago

Although this is for South Africa, Google is really taking initiative in Africa in general. I was part of an MIT student group that Google funds every year to go to different African countries/universities to teach a mobile programming/entrepreneurship course. I went to Rwanda last year and the experience was fantastic. The end of the class culminates in a business plan competition using the technologies and business ideas they have learned with the winners receiving healthy cash prizes to jump start their businesses. It is a pretty amazing program that has seen the birth of lots of successful companies. It's no surprise to me that Google is investing more into Africa. Edit: Nokia also funds the program.

Untitled 16y ago

Hmmmm... The software industry in South Africa faces several problems. Probably the first problem is that computer science teaching and research sucks. This is not my opinion but based on research (http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/Local%20science%20needs%20a%20booster%20shot.pdf http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/Local%20sci...) – the relative citation index of computer science is at 0.57. Engineering is much higher (at 0.73). This problem is compounded by the fact that the financial services industry absorbs the most talented of those who study computer science. Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection. Hosting is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups. What is worse, internet start-ups cannot use the only competitive advantage that S. Africa has – fairly cheap unskilled labour (cheaper than developed countries, much more expensive than China and India). Personally, I think the local electronics industry will do better (with medium scale production). Firstly, Engineering education is still a lot better than computer science (thanks in part to international agreements such as the Washington accord which ensures (some) independence of engineering councils and keeps the government and political meddling to a minimum). Secondly, it is not as affected by the problems (bandwidth) and can at least use some advantages (cheaper skilled and unskilled labour). I know of two electronics companies which recently gained quite big multi-year contracts from large US companies. In the long term I am pessimistic though – the quality of primary and secondary education is falling (according to international rankings such as TIMSS and other studies). This creates a problem feeding the universities. The quality of research in universities is also under pressure and decreasing in most technical fields (see linked articles and personal experience as a lecturer). Unfortunately political considerations are before academic excellence. The industrial economy relies on people qualified in technical areas – and it will follow the downward trend. https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_State%282009%29.pdf https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_St...

prr 16y ago
> Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection. Hosting is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups. Fun fact: AT&T played a large role in f###ing SA's internet up; with dodgy political deals, lousy infrastructure support and horrific bandwidth caps. http://news.slashdot.org/story/07/08/26/1642210/How-SBC-ATampT-Pillaged-South-Africas-Economy http://news.slashdot.org/story/07/08/26/1642210/How-SBC-ATam... [edit] Slashdot article link is dead, copy here: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1090.html http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1090.html

timlindinct 16y ago

Having an incubator in South Africa is actually more noteworthy than if it were "Startups in the Congo". Here in South Africa, as other commenters pointed, we still don't have a strong software industry, neither from the academic side, nor from the hacker culture side. However, in comparison to other African countries, we have a developed infrastructure. We have fast broadband access (although only recently), and access to current technology (smartphones etc), which is not as much the case in north african countries. That means that the sort of startups could be on the same global level, as opposed to targeting different (region specific) problems or technology. We also have strong universities that could become strong software universities, given enough pressure. One other significant difference that I've come to realize after lots of thinking about it, is that South Africa is one of the very few countries in the world that is first language English...outside of America and England (Australia would be the other). This obviously makes a huge difference in terms of potential for first class membership in the same industry / network. So to some degree we have had South Africa almost hiding away as an unattended asset in this regard. This is probably acts as a large hurdle in European / Asian / other African countries and puts SA in a different category. Also noteworthy, is the fact that (as far as I know) this is Google first proper incubator project anywhere in the world. Viewing this as part of Google's "Africa Project", for all these reasons, would be looking at it from completely the wrong point of view (IMO).

Apocryphon 16y ago

Google ought to also fund startups in Chile, Italy, and Australia. Lock down every single Mediterranean climate in the world.

a54552 16y ago
Your point is flippant, but you do make an interesting point. There is huge demand for skilled programmers in South Africa, and very few skilled graduates. Most are employed in Johannesburg, and the majority are snapped up by the financial industry, as someone else pointed out in this thread. Convincing them to consider Cape Town will be difficult. Apart from UCT graduates, it will be interesting to see who else they manage to attract. Cape Town is a great city (and the best run municipality in the country), but it lacks the dynamism of Johannesburg. I have to wonder if "tourist" considerations, rather than serious business thinking drove the decision to put the incubator in Cape Town.

Apocryphon 16y ago

Has any group done a similar thing to promote Indian startups? Sounds like a more sustainable and helpful thing in the long run. Give a man a job in your company, and he'll work for you for the rest of a life. Teach a man to build his own company, and he'll work for himself.

mdpm 16y ago

I am applying, but I do have a few small points: - As seed capital goes, that's not going to get very far. It is, however, great that other aspects will be supported. - Given the failure rate, likely worse than international par - that's not really enough ideas being sponsored to see many graduate. - There are other incubators here, offering similar services (however, not Google's name as a sponsor, nor generally the capital) - Competing internationally from .za will be hard. Perhaps prohibitively so. Ideas with primarily local applicability will be more likely to succeed, which means ... - You should really be developing (and selling) a _business_, not an application.