Silicon Cape

Silicon Cape is a nonprofit company committed to building and catalysing the technology ecosystem in the Western Cape.

Founded in 2009, by Vinny Lingham and Justin Standford (Here’s the original post), the organisation has grown to over 10 000 individual members, representing over 500 organisations with close ties with other professional bodies such as Wesgro, CITI and Global Entrepreneurship, the government of the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town.

Since its inception it has grown into a recognised organisation that has access to, and represents, the interested of the tech and entrepreneurial communities in the province.

What does Silicon Cape do?

It supports the growth of the ecosystem by attracting the right stakeholders to the ecosystem and by working with entrepreneurs, regulators, governments and corporate businesses to create an environment where startups can thrive.

How does Silicon Cape do this?

Silicon Cape has four main areas of the focus:

• Providing non-financial resources to the Silicon Cape community in the form of information , industry research , networking events and facilitating connections.
• Creating an enabling environment by working to bring about better regulations and less red tape by working with local and national government bodies and Chapter Nine Institutions and encouraging more diversity with active support from the Transformation portfolio team.
• Increasing partnerships and bring as many different players into the sector through formal partnerships and sponsors with corporate businesses, government departments and agencies and local and national networking organisations.
• Market the Western Cape in general, and Cape Town and surrounds in particular, as an international technology hub by showcasing our startups successes to international visiting government and private sector delegations, investors and MBA groups.