Silicon Cape gives rise to new tech fund

The Silicon Cape has a new tech incubator, Springlab, launched by the co-founder of online fashion store, Zando.

The new venture aims to foster entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, and will aim to invest between R200,000 and R2 million, including the use of Springlab’s core resources and services.

Springlab’s founders are Eugen Petersen, co-founder of Zando, and Sheraan Amod, who co-founded Personera, a US-based venture capital backed firm.

The pair say that Springlab can cover the full spread of a technology venture’s needs including strategy, product development, online marketing, sales, administration and later stage fundraising.

The fund’s first venture, RecoMed, was launched in December, and the site’s aim is to locate doctors nearby and then enable patients to book appointments with them.

The service already features 4,000 doctors and, according to Springlab, attracts 14,000 visits a month.

“Entrepreneurship has been the engine for growth in the United States. Now Africa is on the rise and technology entrepreneurship should be at the forefront of it” said Petersen.

“We are deploying the internationally successful incubator model to spur this growth, with a few African tweaks of course.”

“Springlab founds its own companies and is not an external investor or temporary accelerator” says Sheraan Amod. “We take on fewer projects, but stay hands on while the venture grows up. We’re a committed partner.”