Following a pilot project in the UK, Oracle South Africa is joining the global VentureNetwork initiative, designed to build an entrepreneurial community, and help source venture capital for the start-up market.
[VIDEO]VentureNetwork, an electronic, open, single source online community, consists of a number of global partners, including Ernst and Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sun Microsystems and Cisco.
VentureNetwork was established in Europe last year in a move to form a "pool" of reputable companies and people with the knowledge and expertise to help new entrepreneurs to incubate and build successful start-up e-businesses. So far, 1 800 European start-ups have submitted their business plans to venture capitalists through the project.
"These companies, together with a growing corps of South African legal experts, venture capitalists, financial investors, business angels, business incubators and financial investment companies, are ready to assist emerging entrepreneurs with strategic consulting and support to develop and grow their e-business ventures," comments Marc Gower, Oracle SA marketing director.
[VIDEO]"In this country, it is targeted at young South African entrepreneurs leaving, or about to leave university, as well as executives currently working for companies, but who have aspirations in the e-business and Internet environment," says Gower.
Oracle hopes to see 600 business plans submitted from South African entrepreneurs in the next six months, and hopes to find funding for at least 100 of those projects.
The initiative will provide a comprehensive set of free-of-charge software applications, including systems designed to manage and develop new businesses, design marketing and technology plans. Oracle will also supply a personalised intranet facility with both public and private chat forums.
"The business model needed for an online e-business enterprise is different to that of a conventional or traditional business. An e-business needs to implement, from the outset, a Web-based self-service virtual enterprise model in which the concept of shared resources is integral. The most important aspect of an e-business start-up is speed - getting to market fast and growing the business fast," Gower notes.
[VIDEO]Gower says VentureNetwork South Africa already has the resources to assist start-up companies with the preparation of business plans and proposals for first-round funding. It plans to provide a broad spectrum of free management services - such as legal and human resource consulting - to assist entrepreneurs with the day-to-day running of their new business ventures in the future.
He adds that Oracle has no intention of generating revenue specifically from the VentureNetwork site. "This is a conduit for e-business companies to access the fullest possible range of products and services. As such, the site will generate revenue for the members only through products and services offered to established businesses."
Related links:
www.venturenetwork.oracle.com
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