Oracle Invests $1M To Support African Start-ups

American multinational technology company Oracle says it will invest $1 million dollars to support African start-ups.

In a statement, the company stated the funds will provide extra resources and support to technology start-ups across Africa over the next two years saying, “We help start-ups grow from grassroots through scaling. Africa is a hotbed for tech entrepreneurs, and we have witnessed a 91 per cent growth in enrolments from South African start-ups, and 39 per cent growth from over 13 other African countries within the last year,”

It added: “The USD one million investment will further boost the efforts of tech entrepreneurs in Africa to utilise the latest digital technologies for the success of their start-ups,” said Jason Williamson, Vice President, Oracle for Start-ups,”

This program follows Oracle’s recent announcement of the opening of its first cloud region in Johannesburg, South Africa to meet the rapidly growing demand for enterprise cloud services on the continent.

The company said the Oracle Cloud in Johannesburg will boost cloud adoption across Africa while also helping businesses achieve better performance and drive continuous innovation.

Oracle plans to open at least 44 cloud regions around the world by the end of 2022 to support strong customer demand for cloud services.

The demand for data centres in Africa has spiked due to a boom in Internet penetration rates, a growing digital economy, increased globalisation of business and accelerated digital transformation in organisations due to the Covid-19 pandemic.