Banking and investment firm Investec, in partnership with En-novate, is taking a group of 22 South African entrepreneurs on a week-long trip to Silicon Valley at the end of the month in a bid to allow them to establish new business relationships.
The group visit, which runs on May 21-29, will expose the South African entrepreneurs to the most cutting-edge companies, incubators, VCs and hi-tech startups in Silicon Valley.
Investec said the entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to engage with startup founders, angel investors, venture capital funds and multinationals, while experiencing the conditions that have allowed Silicon Valley to become arguably the centre of global technological innovation.
Among the selected entrepreneurs are DJ and Cliff Central founder Gareth Cliff, Murray Legg of Webfluential, Lungisa Matshoba of Yoco and Mark Allewell of Bluetooth tracking project Leash.
Allewell told Disrupt Africa he plans to use the trip to establish new multinational relationships.
“Through this trip, Investec and En-novate are exposing local entrepreneurs to some of the world’s most cutting-edge companies, tech startups, venture capitalists and business incubators,” he said.
Allewell said he was eager to showcase the recently-launched Leash tracking device in the United States (US).
“Searching via Bluetooth comes with inherent deficiencies, so we looked at how we can increase the effective range of normal Bluetooth by using Leash devices and apps to create a network effect,” he said.
“With a large enough network mesh, Leash users will be able to search for their missing items anywhere. We’re hoping to disrupt the car tracking market by using the community, its hardware and app partners to provide a better, cheaper way of tracking high value items.”
