The Silicon Cape Initiative, an NPO and ecosystem enabler for tech-powered startups in the Western Cape, has announced a co-operation with Standard Bank.
Silicon Cape chairperson Dr Sumarie Roodt comments: “Our partnership with Standard Bank highlights how carefully selected and structured alliances can positively impact local economic ecosystems, particularly as it will enable key value exchanges to take place between the Silicon Cape community and Standard Bank’s employees and customers. It should be used as an example to inspire a growing number of similar collective impact collaborations.
“The partnership is also confirmation that our membership model can deliver high impact value for local and global companies wishing to tap into the innovation value chain within the startup space here in the Cape, and that Silicon Cape is seen as a Pan-African unifier of innovation efforts across the continent.”
Standard Bank’s emerging technology innovation lead Naomi Snyman says the financial institution realises that, in the new future, banks will no longer be the sole provider of financial services.
“We know that to compete in this new world, and to really add value to our customers, we need to collaborate with smaller fintech companies that have laser-like focus on specific customer experiences or solutions.
“Why we specifically joined Silicon Cape is that within the innovation ecosystem in South Africa, Cape Town is the central point where all these wonderful ideas and where all the best skills have decided to base themselves. We know that if we really want to make a meaningful difference in not only supporting smaller entrepreneurs, but also in supporting innovation culture and the ecosystem within South Africa, the only true partnership can be with Silicon Cape.”
Standard Bank has already tapped into the Silicon Cape community to gain deeper insights into technologies that are changing the world including blockchain; artificial intelligence; extended reality; quantum computing; genome sequencing and central banking.
“We want to add value to our customers and really learn as much as we can from upcoming trends, new uses of tech and new solutions from within the Silicon Cape community. Through that, we wish to learn about consumers from a different perspective. We often look at consumers from a very narrow-minded banking approach so what we also want to get out of the relationship is to broaden our perspective, our frame of reference, and to get close to our customers through new partnerships.
“We’re open for collaboration, and we’re open for business.”