Our Incubation programme is geared to go with Business Beat producing a total of 38 applicants competing for a Pre-incubation Start-up Package, and the Femtech Support Programme for Women resulting in 43 submissions from aspiring entrepreneurs in Gauteng.
Patricia Dlamini, Manager of Maxum, says about Business Beat; “The response was phenomenal! We are not merely talking about the numbers of entries here; even the quality of innovative concepts is amazing.” The second and “most intense” phase of the competition kicked off at the Business Beat Forum – an event held at The Innovation Hub on 17 February. Short-listed candidates had the opportunity to introduce themselves, (and their concepts), to a selected group of MBA students from the Gordon Institute of Business Sciences (University of Pretoria). This is networking at its best - providing a win-win scenario to both the entrepreneurs and the students.
“The aim of the event is to encourage collaboration between the MBA’s and the entrepreneurs with the envisaged result being a number of well packed business proposals for submission to the Maxum Selection Panel” explains Patricia. She adds, “It is encouraging to note the huge local potential for innovation. Now we have to address issues like funding of the early stage concept. We are presently in discussions with venture capitalists and government funding programmes like SPII (IDC) to see how funding gaps may be addressed.” Winners of the Business Beat competition will receive a six months Maxum pre-incubation package.
Visit
http://www.theinnovationhub.com/release64.cfm and scroll down to Maxum Business Beat to view the winner’s package.
The Femtech Support Programme for Women – a new initiative sponsored by the Embassy of Finland - targets women with the long-term objective to increase the number of women owning and growing technology start-up companies in South Africa.
Dr. Jill Sawers, Manager of Entrepreneurship at The Innovation Hub, explains “There has been limited emphasis on aggressively stimulating the growth of a pipeline of women in technical entrepreneurial fields. Femtech will bring together women with an understanding of business development, and persons from technical backgrounds, to find potential synergies for creating high-tech businesses.
Short-listed candidates will be announced on 7 March 2009 and invited to attend an ‘idea generating workshop’ where they will be presented with identified industry problems and encouraged to develop innovative solutions in the areas of national priority such as ICT, alternative energy, security, education, and biotechnology.
“Innovative solutions are required to address national challenges and it is vital to stimulate the development of small, agile, innovative companies. Femtech is specifically designed to provide an opportunity for women to start and sustain high-tech businesses. The overriding goal is to create a network of potential resource persons providing on-going mentoring, training, financial resources, and technical partnerships for women entrepreneurs.”
The latest news is the recent announcement that The Maxum Business Incubator is the first Microsoft BizSpark partner in South Africa!
Microsoft BizSpark gives easy access to current, full-featured Microsoft development tools and production licenses of server products; professional technical and expert business support; plus global visibility to new markets.
Visit
www.theinnovationhub.com and click on the article titled ‘Maxum Business Incubator Selected to join Microsoft BizSpark Program’ under ‘Breaking New Ground’ on the homepage, to learn more about this exciting new development.
For more information contact:
www.maxum.co.za
