The Cape Innovation and Technology (CiTi), recognised along with its Bandwidth Barn as Africa’s oldest tech incubator, has rebranded to UVU Africa to mark its new pan-African approach.

Established in 1999, CiTi works with government, academia, business and society to promote inclusive growth of the digital economy, and has significantly impacted the growth of the Cape Town and South African technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The newly rebranded UVU Africa is extending and evolving its work throughout the African continent with the ambition of impacting multiple African countries over the next 20 years; the rebrand was celebrated with an event earlier this week, attended by 200 ecosystem partners, government supporters and funders.

“UVU Africa will continue to design and build future-fit inclusive societies through innovation and technology. We drive inclusive growth of the digital economy through business incubation, skills development and through key projects that catalyse open innovation and collaboration. We build future societies, today, across Africa,” said Joshin Raghubar, chairman of UVU Africa.

UVU Africa’s brand vision is to create a powerful modern African brand that reflects the organisation’s inclusive values while being inspirational, ambitious and trusted. The brand values are UVU Africa’s foundational beliefs. As part of the brand core, they act as the compass to guide the brand story, actions and behaviours.

The organisation also launched a new Cape Town innovation hub and a new 250m2 state-of-the-art biotech laboratory that will continue to support and grow the local biotech economy and technology and innovation ecosystem.

“Our interventions and impact stretch from Khayelitsha to Kigali, and I believe that our new brand now reflects both our current reach and our aspirations. Participation in the digital economy by our talented youth is critical for Africa to be able to unlock its true economic potential. Our programmes are designed to accelerate digital inclusion across Africa,” said Ian Merrington, group CEO of UVU Africa.

“Thematic clustering across areas such as biotech and ed-tech, coupled with digital and entrepreneurial skills building, has proven to be a successful formula for accelerating economic growth and enabling greater economic participation on the continent. The launch of our new East Africa office in Kigali, Rwanda, enables us to strengthen and build on our partnerships and collaborations across Africa, and I have no doubt that UVU Africa will be at the centre of Africa’s digital economic growth.”