Calls Flood In To Bermuda's First E-Commerce Incubator

Lisa Ugur, Tax-news.com, London

12 July 2000

Bermuda has made a huge push in the last few months to become an e-commerce hub, and there seems to be no sign of a let-up in enthusiasm and enterprise for the dotcom business, despite a general downturn in the fortune of Internet companies on a worldwide basis, as reflected in falling stock prices and a loss of investor confidence.

Not so in Bermuda. Its first e-commerce incubator has apparently received hundreds of calls from aspiring Internet entrepreneurs, and this is even before the company, named eVentureCentre, has actually been formally incorporated. Calls have flooded in, and a large proportion have been from companies who either want to establish bricks and mortar businesses on the island or wish to start up Internet companies to service Bermuda.

Due to be incorporated in September 2000, eVentureCentre is supported by Bermuda's Minister of Telecommunications and E-commerce, Renee Webb, and can already list the high-profile e-security concern QuoVadis amongst its companies. A joint venture between the Bermuda-based Centre Group, a unit of Zurich Financial Services Group, and Paragon Bermuda Ltd, a Bermuda-based technology applications consultancy, it has already prepared over a dozen offices ready to take on start-up companies. They will be offered office space, computers, administrative backup and a team of Internet experts to act in an advisory capacity.

Graham Pearson, president of Paragon Bermuda and a member of the eVentureCentre team, said that out of the hundreds of approaches to eVentureCentre that have been made in the past few months, about a third of the companies have been Bermuda-centric. He said 'Say out of 100, 70 have been external companies wanting to incorporate in Bermuda. But the other 30 or so have been Bermuda-based ideas. This means that they are not simply a brass-plate, but want to set up here and see the intellectual property on offer in Bermuda as an invaluable resource.'

Of the companies which eVentureCentre plans to incubate (and there are purported to be around nine waiting in the wings already), Mr Pearson said 'There is no set time scale. It could be as short as six months or as long as 18. We are taking them through the first stage. By the second stage we expect them to have their own offices.We give a company what it needs to be profitable. But it is not a quick hit. Even a company that gets to second level funding success is not guaranteed. It is really a five year strategy. Gone are the days when you could do an Initial Public Offering in nine months. There are a lot of good ideas, but not much money. These companies not only need cash, but technical assistance and services as well as sound advice. If you are prepared to incubate a company you need to have tangible revenue rather than betting on a stake in the market. We are going back to the tried and tested method of having something of tangible value.'

According to Mr Pearson, eVentureCentre is committed to Bermuda and if the company takes off in a big way, as is expected, it can only spell good news for the island. Renee Webb's e-commerce drive is aiming to attract investors and bring Bermuda bang up-to-date. Having a resident Internet incubator would almost certainly go a long way to achieving these objectives.

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