Staff Reporter, Author at Ventureburn

Meet the Kenya, Nigeria, SA Google Impact Challenge finalists
By Staff Reporter on 7 November, 2018
Google has announced the Kenyan, Nigerian and South African finalists of its Impact Challenge, while calling on the public to vote for the People's choice winner in the respective countries. Voting closes on 25 November. The challenge -- which was launched across all three countries in May -- aims to identify local innovators who have the potential to make their community a better place. The finalists include startups as well as non-profits and various public-private initiatives. As part of the challenge, the public and a panel of judges votes for ideas with the most potential. Thereafter, Google pairs each winner with a package of strategic...
Digital Lab Africa to open call to content innovators – from music to animators
By Staff Reporter on 6 November, 2018
African innovators in digital music, web creation, virtual reality (VR), video games and animation better listen up. French backed incubation platform Digital Lab Africa (DLA) will start taking entries for the third edition of its incubation programme from next week Thursday (15 November). DLA -- set up by the French embassy and French Institute in South Africa (IFAS) in 2016 and is managed by Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD) -- made the announcement in a statement yesterday. The initiative aims to provide a springboard for the creators of next-generation content with the support of French and Sub-Saharan...
Nigerian startup Edves secures $120k funding from Chinook Capital, CcHub fund
By Staff Reporter on 5 November, 2018
Lagos-based edtech startup Edves has announced that it has secured a $120 000 seed round from two Nigerian investors: Chinook Capital and Co-creation Hub's (CcHub) innovation fund Growth Capital. The startup, which was founded in 2016 by CEO Dimeji Falana (pictured above) and COO Dare Adebayo, announced the investment in a post on Twitter last Friday (2 November). The startup has developed school management software that is helping over 340 schools deal with admissions, payments, report cards, elearning and parent-teacher communication, among other things. Edves was founded in 2016 by CEO Dimeji Falana and COO Dare Adebayo Earlier this year, Edves won the Transforming Education Prize at the...
Jozi fintech startup Franc Group wins Seedstars Johannesburg 2018
By Staff Reporter on 5 November, 2018
Jozi-based self-insurance platform Franc Group has been selected as the winner of last Friday's Seedstars Johannesburg pitch event. The fintech startup was founded in May by CEO Thomas Brennan and aims to give people access to low-cost passive investments. Through the Franc app -- available on both the Google Playstore and the Apple App Store -- customers can invest in either the money market and the stock market for only R5 per month with no minimum contribution required Language learning platform Uthini was placed second, while fintech startup Maxicash came third for its financial support ecosystem which is built around remittance and payments. Franc Group, Uthini and Maxicash...
AfriLabs partners with Francophone innovation hub network Jokkolabs
By Staff Reporter on 5 November, 2018
AfriLabs -- a pan-African network of tech innovation hubs -- has announced that it is adding 12 new hubs to its network and extending its reach to nine countries after concluding a partnership with Francophone open innovation organisation Jokkolabs. The nine countries are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, France, Gambia, Mali, Morocco and Senegal. The development brings the total number of innovation hubs in the AfriLabs network to 135 centres across 36 African countries. In a statement announcing the partnership with Jokkolabs last week Friday (2 November), AfriLabs said the two organisations will work together to design programmes for both networks. As part of the deal,...
Startups have until midnight to enter 2018 Ventureburn Survey to win iPhone X
By Staff Reporter on 5 November, 2018
SA startups have until midnight this Monday (5 November) to enter the 2018 Ventureburn Tech Startup Survey. In addition, Ventureburn has added two new prizes to encourage startups to enter -- a brand new iPhone X valued at over R21 000 and two cases of venture capitalist Michael Jordaan's Montegray wine, a 2015 Syrah worth over R2000. The two new prizes are in addition to a number of other prizes (see below). The survey is run in partnership with Telkom Futuremakers and analytics company Qurio. Following the success of both its 2015 and 2017 tech startup surveys, Ventureburn will again uncover the nuts and bolts of the SA tech startup sector, seeking to...
Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [5/11/2018] [Updated]
By Staff Reporter on 4 November, 2018
This week sees the fourth Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) kick off in Cape Town on Thursday (8 November). The theme of this year's event is "Unleashing Ideas: Innovation, sustainability and enterprise growth". On Wednesday (7 November), DEMO Ventures CEO Tania Ngima will moderate a fireside chat with Chandaria Group CEO Darshan Chandaria at Metta Nairobi. The Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) takes place on 8 and 9 November in Lagos, Nigeria and will bring the issues, entrepreneurs, and opportunities revolutionising finance in Africa to the forefront. Building an aerospace startup? Look out for Africa4Future initiative events being held in Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos this week...
Nine African fintech startups selected for Catapult: Inclusion Africa bootcamp
By Staff Reporter on 2 November, 2018
The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT) Foundation has announced the 14 fintech startups -- nine of them from Africa -- that have been selected for next week's Catapult: Inclusion Africa bootcamp in Luxembourg. The announcement was made yesterday (1 November). The week-long bootcamp -- which will take place between 5 and 9 November -- is aimed at fintech companies that that are focused on financial inclusion and keen to establish a link between Africa and Europe. The bootcamp is sponsored by Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs Directorate for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, as well as by PwC Luxembourg. The LHoFT Foundation's strategic partners InFine, University of...
AFD seeks startups with solutions that boost women to apply to digital challenge
By Staff Reporter on 2 November, 2018
French development bank AFD and innovation platform Digital Africa are seeking African tech startups that help boost women -- be it in the economic, social, cultural or political sphere -- to apply to the third edition of the AFD Digital Challenge. Applications close on 12 November. This year's edition has three prizes on offer for five selected startups, namely -- the Digital Challenge Initiative, Digital Challenge Success and Digital Challenge Jury's Award. Entries for the AFD Digital Challenge close on 12 November The Digital Challenge Initiative aims to award €15 000 to two seed-stage startups that demonstrate an "outstanding" ability to innovate. A €50 000 Digital Challenge Success prize will be awarded to...
GTR Ventures announces investment in Africa-focused deals platform Orbitt
By Staff Reporter on 1 November, 2018
International investment platform GTR Ventures has announced an undisclosed investment in Africa-focused digital deal-sourcing platform Orbitt. In a statement on its website on Tuesday (30 October), GTR Ventures -- which has offices in Singapore, London and Hong Kong -- said the deal with the London-based startup marks its "first Africa-focused investment". As part of the deal, the venture builder said it will work with Orbitt to strengthen the deal-sourcing platform's trade finance capabilities. It will also help Orbitt to grow its relationships with traditional and digital trade finance players. Orbitt claims it has facilitated over $100-million of equity, debt and trade finance transactions to date Commenting in the same...