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The French Tech Hub initiative is to launch an incubator in Cape Town aimed at assisting local startups while also providing a soft-landing location for French businesses looking to take advantage of opportunities in South Africa and the rest of the continent.

Disrupt Africa reported last month Cape Town had been selected as a new French Tech Hub, becoming the sixth city globally to join the programme after Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Tel-Aviv and Tokyo.

At the recent official launch of the initiative in the city, more details were laid out of the incubator that will be established. Aside from playing host to Cape Town French Tech Hub members, it will also provide an incubation space for spin-off companies of the French Tech Hub members or startups identified as strategic for their businesses.

The incubator will also serve as a channel for open innovation projects and sourcing of innovative ideas for French Tech members, and a gateway for French and South African entrepreneurs looking to access French Tech development capabilities. It also provides a soft-landing location for French companies in South Africa.

“Many services can be envisioned such as easy and fast access to affordable hands-on advisory and soft landing services, referrals, fund raising assistance, shared office space, meeting rooms, administrative help, business development, financial and technical expertise, IT support, marketing PR, events,” the French Tech Hub said.

“To provide them, an analysis should be performed to evaluate how the business model will be balanced between revenues generated directly by the incubator and the investments in CAPEX & OPEX from the partners.”

The hub will make itself sustainable by monetising services such as product support, access to networks, office space and technological development, with the French Tech Hub offering service packages while also being able to take equity in supported companies.

The launch event brought together more than 250 French and local tech entrepreneurs based in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.

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