Start-up players in SA recently released findings as part of a proposal to create a start-up law, calling on government for legislation to enable local tech-backed businesses to scale faster and compete globally without having to go offshore.

‘Something needs to be done,’ said Matsi Modise, SiMODiSA vice-chair and chair of the steering committee putting together the legislation.

‘As high growth, high-impact start-ups in SA, we still don’t have that traction, we’re not collaborating or speaking with one voice,’ she said at a webinar where the committee unveiled its draft proposal.

‘Some of the legislation that we have is making us uncompetitive globally. We’re looking to see if there’s something that can work in parallel or whether we have to create something brand new,’ said Modise.

A Business Day report says the collective is pushing for a start-up law to be enacted through an amendment or a standalone Act.

The steering committee consists of representatives of Digital Collective Africa, Endeavor SA, i4Policy, Loudhailer, the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, Silicon Cape, SiMODiSA and Wesgro.

The steering committee noted that other relaxations include simplifying procurement policies with which to scale up the involvement of start-ups in the national economy; direct funding of start-up businesses through automatic reinvestment of PAYE and VAT; and easing of labour and immigration laws to foster the availability of and access to talent.

In addition, there are calls for the introduction of incentives ‘to stimulate capital contributions from early stage funding entities’.

Full Business Day report