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Nur Bremmen: Staff reporter

Nur is an enigma with a passion for creating words. He recently entered a love affair with technology and chorizo sausages. He travels a lot -- you catch him, if you can, at a Silicon Cape event every now and again.

• Hackers take on kids’ rooms, get them to eat their veggies

  Having trouble keeping your kids entertained or getting them to eat their veggies? Maybe hackers can help you. The winners of the latest Hellocomputer/DraftFCB hackathon certainly look like they're onto something in that regard. The winning entry in the 48-hour hackathon was a hacked kids’ room which was converted into a gaming station. Sensors allowed kids to jump on the bed while being mirrored by their imaginary friend, pilot a rocket-propelled dinosaur through space as well as play a ...

• Schoolboy startup incubator gets backing of Sage Pastel, Standard Bank

  This looks pretty cool. St Stithians Boys’ College, a top-end private school, has established a startup incubator programme for its pupils with the backing of accounting software company Sage Pastel and financial services giant Sanlam. The 10-week for Grade 10 Business Studies learners that will reportedly them formally register and operate real businesses, from the creation of business plans through funding, staffing, marketing and trading. The programme will be taught for four hours a week during class time. Technically, it forms ...

• Rockefeller Foundation pumping $100 million into Africa’s digital scene

  Africa is where it is at and its digital/tech scene is all the rage. Bigwigs are noticing the continent. The latest group to take interest in Africa is the Rockefeller Foundation, which announced a new initiative that will focus on Africa's youth and employment, Digital Jobs Africa. The foundation has pledged nearly US$100-million to Africa's digital sector in the hopes of impacting "one million lives in six countries through leverage and private sector partnership". According to the foundation the investment will ...

• Net Prophet wants to help take startups from mind to market

  Net Prophet is an annual gathering of 2 000+ geeks, and one of the bigger tech conferences on the South African calendar. For a couple of years now, it's hosted a startup workshop as an offshoot of the conference and it's looking for entrepreneurs keen to take part in this year's edition. The workshop, which is limited to participants from 10 startups, will see the startups cover a number of topics which, the organisers claim, will provide them with practical ...

• Microsoft’s East-African footprint expands with iHub and m:lab co-op

  Microsoft wants to play a big role in driving innovation in Africa. After recently introducing the 4Afrika Initiative -- geared at improving the continent's economic development and global competitiveness -- the software giant has announced a strategic cooperation with business incubator iHub and the m:lab East Africa consortium. The goal is to support startup, innovator and developer communities in East Africa to grow their skills and ultimately build businesses using Microsoft technologies by providing software training and access to capital ...

• 5 small-town SA tech entrepreneurs sign deals with international investors

  In March this year we reported that a group of SA tech entrepreneurs from small-town South Africa, were set to take a trip to the UK with the hope of signing deals with international investors. The organisation behind the programme, MEDO (Micro Enterprise Development organisation) reports that five of the 11 small businesses represented on its current programme signed deals or partnerships with stakeholders in the UK and Europe. MEDO says that the remaining six created networks with potential partners, with ...

• Meet the startups pitching at South Korea’s biggest startup conference

  beLAUNCH, South Korea’s Biggest startup and technology conference has revealed this year’s 20 top startups from Korea and abroad which will be presenting at the event. The two day conference which aims to support startups to grow and scale will attract leading startups, investors, developers and representatives from technology companies in Korea and abroad. James Jung, Founder and CEO of beSUCCESS says that more than 2000 attendees are expected for this year's event. The top 20 also include the winner of ...

• Innovation in Africa is alive and well: IPA announces its 2013 finalists

  The Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) is a big deal. The joint initiative between the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Innovation Foundation (AIF), awards a first prize of US$100 000 for the best African innovation with the greatest social impact and clear business potential. The finalists for 2013 has been announced and looking at this year's crop, one thing is abundantly clear, there is no shortage of innovators in Africa. Entrepreneurs developed ten practical solutions to ...

• Omidyar Network releases African entrepreneurship report, it’s a must read

  We have the pleasure of presenting the Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Africa report compiled by the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic foundation established by Pierre Omidyar -- the founder of eBay -- in partnership with global strategy consulting film, Monitor Group. This epic 48-page report is the result of a three-phase research project launched in 2012 aimed to better understand the state of entrepreneurship in Africa. The project started with a survey of 582 entrepreneurs across six Sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, ...

• Interview: Sam Hutchinson, CTO of unified messaging juggernaut Everlytic

  Sam Hutchinson is co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Everlytic, the unified messaging platform for sharing content via email, mobile, and social media. South Africans Hutchinson and Josh Adler started Prefix Technologies in 2004. When the duo began tailoring email newsletters for the publishing industry, Everlytic was born -- a general email and mobile marketing platform. Today, Everlytic ties together email marketing, social sharing and analytics with support for popular CMSes like WordPress and Drupal. Clients can measure and track campaigns ...

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