South African incubator Sw7 has opened applications for the October intake of its nine week Cape Town-based accelerator, promising a replica of its recent programme held in partnership with Standard Bank in Johannesburg.
Sw7 launched in July of last year and runs nine-week, mentor-led programmes for technology entrepreneurs.
Disrupt Africa reported in April, Standard Bank opened two business incubators; and shortly after Sw7 announced a collaboration with the bank and Microsoft BizSpark to launch its mentor-led tech accelerator at the newly-opened Standard Bank Incubator in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
Applications today opened for the next cohort of Sw7’s Cape Town-based accelerator – to be held at Workshop 17 at the Waterfront -, with Sw7’s founders saying the incubator beginning in October will be a repeat of the programme co-hosted with Standard Bank.
“It’s been a year since we ran a programme in Cape Town, a lot has changed with Sw7 and within the ecosystem in that time. We have seen a significant increase in the quality of the applications as well as in the support being offered by the players in the sector,” said Odette Jones, Sw7 co-founder.
“On top of this, the relationship with Standard Bank is bearing fruit and strong support from Microsoft means we have more to offer the founders. We find that the majority of businesses that are attending now are post revenue, or preparing to scale up. It’s a very exciting time in our ecosystem.”
The programme will run from October 29, to January 28, 2016.
Relying on mentors who assist throughout the accelerator, Sw7 said its pool of participating mentors has now grown to over 80.
The cost of the accelerator is ZAR25,000 (US$1,835) per participant; although this is discounted to ZAR5,000 (US$367) for Microsoft BizSpark members.
More information is available online. Applications are open until October 17.
