Luring innovation

IT IS the dream of any technology start-up to have investors realise the potential of the company and reward it with a pile of money.

The dream is fuelled by stories of companies like Facebook and Twitter rising up from seemingly nowhere and capturing mountains of funding.

These stories are usually set on the western coast of the US, but the stage is being set for similar tales to become possible in Cape Town.

And this week the dream came true for one South African company.

Skyrove is the brainchild of entrepreneur Henk Kleynhans, who started looking for ways South Africans could share internet connectivity while he was studying at the University of Cape Town.

Kleynhans graduated with a BSc and continued to pursue the project.

Now, a few years later, Skyrove is a successful business that allows anyone to set up their own internet WiFi hotspot and make money from sharing it with others. It has over 500 hotspots in South Africa and over 20 000 registered users.

The cape of millions

The first time I met Henk resulted in us causing trouble in Bloemfontein with some help from locals and the regional mampoer.

Specifically, I remember Henk tearing up the dance floor at the Mystic Boer nightclub, and I suspect he has spent most of this week dancing too.

And that's because Skyrove has just signed a multi-million rand investment deal with New Jersey-based company 4Di Capital. Skyrove also recently closed an investment deal with internet service provider Cybersmart.

4Di Capital's Justin Stanford is one of the brains behind the Silicon Cape initiative which aims to transform the Western Cape into an innovation and investment hub reminiscent of San Francisco.

Vinny Lingham is his partner in dreaming up the initiative, having started the highly successful webhosting company Yola which began in South Africa and now has offices in both Cape Town and San Francisco. It has attracted $25m worth of funding.

Silicon Cape recently kicked off with an event in Cape Town supported by a number of thought leaders in the space and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who voiced her support for the initiative.

Stanford is clearly putting his money where his mouth is in supporting innovation in the region by buying in into Skyrove. The sound of money pouring in should tempt even the laziest of Cape Town's mountain-worshippers to get their own start-ups off the ground.

If I had even the vaguest semblance of a good idea for a technology start-up I would be packing for the Cape right now and investing in a rubber dinghy with which to weather the next flood in the city.

It turns out there is more to Cape Town than a flat-topped mountain, some fynbos and better-than-average wine.

With both foreign investors and local leaders taking the idea of a Silicon Cape seriously, it is just a matter of time before the next Mark Shuttleworth emerges from the region.

- Fin24.com