INVESTMENT
Industry leaders start incubator scheme
04-10-2000
by Paul Drury
A new incubation programme for Internet start-ups has been launched in Dublin with the support of four industry leaders.
Business-incubator.com is a co-operative venture between Sun Microsystems/Horizon Open Technology, Oracle, Cisco Systems and Wolfe Group. Microsoft already operates a similar scheme.
A large number of private consultancies -- including Gorann, HP/Oracle, PwC, HotOrigin and Andersen Consulting -- also "hot-house" start-ups. But Business-incubator.com says it will charge substantially less than the market rate and will not look for equity in companies it assists.
A three-month programme, Business-incubator.com is expected to take in 50 entrepreneurs over three years, which represents an investment by the four companies of more than IEP6.5 million in Internet technology.
Participants will pay IEP20,000 for the three months; market rates for this sort of service are in the region of IEP125,000, according to the programme sponsors. During their time on the programme, successful candidates will be given extensive assistance in the fields of Internet technology, managed hosting and technical consultancy.
The four companies involved operate similar programmes in the UK and Holland. In Ireland the first company to be selected is Mobile2Meter, which provides an on-line service to local authorities whereby motorists can pay their on-street parking bills by mobile phone.
"We are going to provide a service that will hopefully create the seeds for the Internet's big names of tomorrow, and at a fraction of the cost that would normally apply," said Oracle Ireland channel and alliances manager Paraic Kennedy. "The good part for entrepreneurs is that their companies will still remain in their hands because we are not asking for equity stakes or royalties. For us this is a flat fee business."
Applications are being taken via the Web site (http:www.business-incubator.com). Proposals will be assessed by a team of experts chosen by the four participating technology companies and successful applicants will then be taken onto the programme.
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