- Liberty has partnered with the University of the Witwatersrand on a space dedicated to entrepreneurs called Flame Station.
- It is is located in the old SAB Miller building in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
- The space was first established in 2022, and has focused on innovation within the fintech sector previously.
Liberty has announced a partnership with the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) that will be of interest to local entrepreneurs. The partnership involves a collaborative space called Flame Station, with Wits having opened up the venue in 2022.
It is located in the old SAB Miller building in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, and is strategically positioned between Liberty’s head office and the Wits main campus.
Last month Wits launched a fintech hub within the space, and is focused on supporting innovation locally, as well as developing advanced technologies, commerce, and mathematics for South Africa entrepreneurs.
With Liberty entering the picture, the intention of the Flame Station is to nurture the rapid development of small startups locally, which have the potential to be funded by interested venture capitalists or corporates.
On top of this, the Flame Station will broaden its reach into other technologies such as artificial intelligence, Blockchain, and quantum computing.
“Entrepreneurship is part of the fabric of Liberty’s DNA, which is why Flame Station operates as an Innovation Impact Centre designed to be a space to ‘fuel the flame’ of start-up companies and entrepreneurs alike. We want to see business concepts not only come alive, but thrive,” noted Oscar Stark, Liberty’s chief strategic enterprise architect.
“Most start-up businesses fail because they are unable to implement or lack the ability to scale their operations. Flame Station changes this reality through the leverage of their idea to execution process which underpins the way in which startups are guided to success,” he added in a press release shared with Hypertext.
Some relevant real world challenges being looked at via the collaborative space include urban farming. Here Flame Station is working on a vertical urban farming initiative called Click Farm – which looks to address issues around food production in constrained spaces. One of the key partners for Click Farm is Standard Bank’s OneFarm Project, with the operation now moving into the commercial phase.
To keep tabs on what Flame Station is doing, check out its LinkedIn page, or to contact it, email them at info[at]flamestation[dot]co[dot]za.
[Image – Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash]
