Since the establishment of the Bandwidth Barn (BWB) in 2000 – an ICT business incubator that was formed out of the Cape IT Initiative (CITI) – a plethora of technology incubators, hubs and accelerators have appeared in the local industry. Johannesburg has the Innovation Hub, and its latest addition, JoziHub, while Cape Town – home to the majority of promising tech startups – has the BWB and the Google-backed 88mph, among others. While they all have differing approaches and offerings, their mandates are essentially the same: to bolster technology innovation and entrepreneurship in SA, and in some cases, Africa. They do this by striving to provide some or all of the resources that are critical to IT startups: seed capital, office space/infrastructure, bandwidth, networks and mentorship, at an affordable price. Yet while Africa has had one or two success stories – most notably the iHub in Kenya – many question whether any of SA’s enterprise development initiatives do more than just make the right noises.

When it comes to startups, one metric that’s certainly relevant is survival. In this regard, the BWB has been a success. The CT-based organisation is arguably the country’s poster child for technology incubators. It’s been in existence for well over a decade, fostering a steady stream of IT businesses in the Western Cape, which is undoubtedly the country’s top-performing province with regards to tech innovation. Where the BWB appears to have had the most impact is in enabling fledgling businesses to survive the hazardous inception phase by providing access to shared space, infrastructure and mentorship. According to an external report on the BWB’s impact, it does ‘exceptionally well’ in ‘preserving companies’.