Cape Town, 24 Oct 2008
The 12 companies that graduated yesterday from the Cape IT Initiative`s VeloCITI business acceleration programme saw more than six-fold increases in their cumulative monthly revenue and salaries during the seven-month programme.
David Murray, a partner in venture capital firm, Cape Venture Partners, and who was one of the VeloCITI mentors, says cumulative total monthly revenue for the companies at the end was R1.62 million from an initial R275 000, and the cumulative monthly salaries grew to R172 000 from R21 000.
Initially, 15 companies started in this year`s class, but three dropped out because one had too much work already, the second`s partners had a fall out and the third gave up its involvement when it realised it did not have a business case, Murray says.
"What all this proves is that mentorship is needed in business and that accelerating a company`s growth is possible if the correct lessons are learnt and programmes are run."
Companies that graduated this year are:
* Real Systems Training, which helps IT professionals to upgrade their skills;
* Steps Engineering, which automates production and prototyping of electronics;
* Breadbin Interactive, which produces the "Freedom Toasters", a method of delivering free and open source software;
* Digital Documents, a document management company;
* Umtha Telecoms, a managed communications company;
* Nclose, which provides IT security products and services;
* Ugenix Software Solutions, a provider of open source software to the SME market;
* MFI Data & Networking Solutions, a provider of holistic networking solutions;
* Blueray Outdoor, a technology-driven outdoor advertising company;
* Spacesoft, an IT software and services company;
* Sibaya IT Solutions, a supplier of Linux desktop support; and
* Colab Communications, an independent IT design and Web consultancy.
Nclose was the best performer, and won R5 000 and several Dell laptop computers for its members.
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