City of Cape Town

Cape Town has a sophisticated, diverse and dynamic economy, and is a regional hub for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Globally, the city ranks among the world’s top destinations to visit and has all the attributes that appeal to people looking for a great city in which to live, work, play and invest.

With a cultural heritage spanning more than 300 years and a vibrant mix of people, places and events, Cape Town is widely considered to be one of the most desirable lifestyle cities in the world.

We are national leaders in business and have a thriving knowledge economy; our skills market is growing and the city offers numerous opportunities for work and investment.

We are also a proudly inclusive city, welcoming all who can join us in our vision to create a safe, sustainable, vibrant urban environment for generations to come.

Cape Town is the digitech hub of Africa and a leading location for technology start-ups and venture capital deals.

The City is also a technology leader in the domains of mobile software, revenue management and payment processes. The value of FDI over the last 10 years in the Software & IT services is ZAR4 704 million (7.1% of total FDI into Cape Town over that period).

According to PWC (2015), of the 742 emerging tech or tech-enabled companies they surveyed as part of their 2015 study, 56% were headquartered in the Western Cape, of which the majority are based in Cape Town. Similarly, the 2015 Ventureburn Survey (2015) found that 59% of start-ups are based in the Western Cape.

The concentration of these companies in Cape Town is reflected in the fact that the Western Cape hosted 75% of venture capital deals in 2015, a 40% increase from 2012 (SAVCA, 2015).

The ongoing advancement of Information Technology infrastructure and innovative software developments, has allowed the e-commerce industry to grow at a rapid pace within the city.

Currently, Cape Town based companies account for the 10 most visited e-commerce websites in the country (Effective Measure, 2014). In an industry that is strongly reliant on supply side factors like the availability of ICT skills, and the prevalence of entrepreneurship, Cape Town has been able to carve out a competitive niche despite having physical access to a much smaller market than the metros in Gauteng.

So successful has Cape Town been in carving out this niche, that it is now widely considered to be a tech and e-commerce hub within Africa.

A note to visitors

Cape Town is in a water-scarce region and is currently in the midst of a serious drought. We need your help to conserve our precious resource. Please ‘save like a local’, and keep your water usage to under 50 litres per person, per day.

Visit www.capetown.gov.za