{"id":375204,"date":"2020-02-19T10:18:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T08:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=375204"},"modified":"2020-02-19T10:18:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T08:18:20","slug":"multichoice-launches-innovation-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/375204\/multichoice-launches-innovation-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"MultiChoice launches innovation fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MultiChoice Group has on Wednesday (19 February), announced the establishment of the MultiChoice Innovation Fund, an extension of its existing Enterprise Development Trust.<\/p>\n<p>With the aspiration of being a pillar to propel small businesses forward, the Innovation Fund will invest in exciting new opportunities for innovators in the video entertainment industry and technology sectors, allowing them to bring their ideas and dreams to life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe video entertainment industry \u2013 and indeed the world as we know it \u2013 is on a fascinating digital trajectory and we need to ensure that we are ahead of the pack if the continent\u2019s entertainment industry is going to continue to grow sustainably and be globally competitive,\u201d said Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group chief executive officer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe anticipate that our Innovation Fund will spur original thinking and exciting new ideas that will lead to breakthrough moments for these growing entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a strong focus on youth- and women-led businesses, the Innovation Fund aims to address the gender gap and youth unemployment, as well as ensuring increased and sustained diversity and inclusion in the tech, media and film industries.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, the Innovation Fund\u2019s strategy is to expand on the already 11 women-owned and four-youth owned businesses it has supported.<\/p>\n<p>The MultiChoice Enterprise Development Trust was established in 2012 to help the group\u2019s contribution to enterprise and supplier development within the ICT sector to be more focused and streamlined. The Trust has so far invested in over 25 businesses totaling well over R180 million, creating 1,000 direct and indirect jobs,&#8221; MultiChoice said.<\/p>\n<p>The Innovation Fund will strengthen this focus, exclusively for South African entrepreneurs, start-ups and businesses with a turnover of up to R50 million. There will be a specific focus on innovation in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Broadcast technology;<\/li>\n<li>Innovative content;<\/li>\n<li>Digital and internet solutions;<\/li>\n<li>Business processing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cWe want to partner with South Africa\u2019s most exciting entrepreneurs \u2013 giving them the tools, skills and financial support to bring their original ideas to life,\u201d Mawela said. \u201cWe hope to help create cutting-edge solutions and competitive businesses that will shape the future of South Africa\u2019s technology sector and video entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/353107\/multichoice-reports-strong-growth-and-promises-more-local-content\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MultiChoice reports strong growth and promises more local content<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MultiChoice Group has on Wednesday (19 February), announced the establishment of the MultiChoice Innovation Fund, an extension of its existing Enterprise Development Trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":214033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[26,1253],"class_list":["post-375204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-headline","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375204"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375208,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375204\/revisions\/375208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}