Telkom and the Cape-based business accelerator, the Bandwidth Barn, have signed a deal which sees the telecom company sponsoring the Barn R1 million a year for three years. Telkom will receive naming rights, so the Barn will now be called Bandwidth Barn, partnered by Telkom.
For the Barn, the deal offers additional funds to build new business support services for its tenants. It is investigating introducing basic administrative, accounting and marketing services, as well as
mentoring programmes.
“Since inception, our vision has been to provide a supportive environment to develop start-up IT companies into stable enterprises,” says Joshin Raghubar, chairman of the Telkom
Bandwidth Barn. “The deal with Telkom makes it possible to offer our tenants even greater support.”
According to Mulligan Pearce, brand executive at Telkom, the company shares the Barn’s vision. “We are committed to partner with companies, which the Barn supports as part of their mandate and our
three-year pledge to the Barn reflects this,” he says.
Raghubar says that the deal is a win-win situation for both organisations. “We”ve worked closely with the executives at Telkom for some time now to structure a deal that works for both of
us. In return for its investment, Telkom will receive naming rights, as well as a seat on the Board. They’ve not asked for much more, just for us to do our job well. It is a very supportive deal for
us.
“From the outset we’ve had an excellent working relationship with Telkom and we expect that this will continue into the future.”
The Telkom Bandwidth Barn is a subsidiary of the Cape IT Initiative (CITI), a networking and cluster development agency that brings together people, ideas and capital to grow the Western Cape’s ICT sector. CITI’s goal is to promote Cape Town as a global IT hub and gateway into Africa, thus facilitating the creation of jobs and prosperity through IT.
Elanza Mouton
