Africa's potential for growth has been recognised by global investment advisory firm, U-Start. The boutique firm will be holding a national pitch event in Cape Town, South Africa, with the goal to partner the top four startups Africa has to offer with Western European funding. U-Start -- which has a fund of around €3.8billion under management contributed to by over 132 international investors -- will further strengthen its presence in Africa with the U-Start Conference taking place on 6 March, featuring ...

The talented technology specialist has become the go-to guy when big advertising agencies go looking for digital skills for an internet, mobile or social media campaign. It seems like desirable status. In fact, the ‘go-to’ reflex explains why some small, under-resourced techie start-ups stay small, under-resourced techie start-ups. You go to them. They don’t come to you. The mismatch is glaring between the excitement of the technology field and the reactive business models favoured by many small technology operators. Ideas-rich ...

Entrepreneur Country (EC), a global online discovery platform aimed at helping startups connect with big corporates (something which can be incredibly beneficial to both), is getting ready to launch in South Africa. Inspired by the example of EC's global founder Julie Meyer, who has experience in both the VC and startup space, Tobie van Zyl (CEO, Moneysmart.co.za) and Zulfiq Isaacs (CEO, Liquid Thought) will be the programme's official representatives in South Africa. Bringing EC to the country will apparently give ...

The saying rings true: Turnover is vanity, profit is reality, cash flow is sanity. The importance of cash flow management in business. With looming deadlines, urgent customers, growing priorities and narrowing margins robbing you of your sleep at night, I know how far down 'proper' financial management is on your list of things to do. For entrepreneurs, financial management seems like a luxury afforded to more-established businesses, and definitely not something we need to apply in the early days of business start-up. Flat-Line or ...

Launched in 2013 by Edwige Boum, and a group of students who met on an online course on Technology Entrepreneurship from Stanford University and motivated by a desire to improve social and economic conditions of many entrepreneurs in Africa, Boum and his friends founded the Afrikstart as a crowdfunding platform for Africa’s startups. Aiming to be Africa’s top crowdfunding platform set to revolutionize how young and women entrepreneurs are funded, trained and mentored, the platform aims to set up local partnerships ...

The popular e-reader app for Mxit, bookly, is expanding its service offering to inspire writing as well. Designed by Native VML, bookly has had a popular uptake since its launch last year and has won numerous prestigious awards. With this latest feature, Native VML hopes to promote and improve literacy in South Africa. The fact that it runs on the social messaging service Mxit means that anyone with a smartphone or a feature phone can read a book and now be ...

Innovation plays an integral role in the longevity and existence of any startup or company, irrespective of which line of work you are in. Customers today are always looking for what their service providers can do for them. And they want you, as the service provider, to provide them with solutions to problems before they even realise there is an issue. Companies are also struggling to retain important knowledge and intellectual value, as key skills are sometimes lost to competitors ...

Last week was the South African budget speech for 2014. While some might be upset about the recent tax increase of alcohol and cigarettes, others are focusing on the brighter things in life. SiMODiSA which is an initiative that seeks to promote and further high growth and innovative SMEs in South Africa, highlights a number of these points of interest. SiMODiSA notes that these policies (many of which itself recommended) aim to be the key drivers of economic growth and job ...

In an attempt to further boost the West African tech scene, seed fund and accelerator 88mph has recently announced the launch of its latest joint venture startup fund in Lagos, Nigeria. The 440 accelerator programme is a joint venture fund between 88mph and the West African-based L5Lab. The latter is responsible for supporting African tech startups such as job vacancy platform Jobberman, online car retailer Cheki , and bus ticketing solution startup Oya. In partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs, the ...

Ever wanted an internship in Asia? Students and graduates from around the world now have access to information on the best internships offered by startups in Asia, thanks to iMoney, one of Malaysia's leading financial product comparison website. The jobs site? It's called LaunchPad. Asia is one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world, alongside Africa, and its blossoming startup scene will give interns a hands-on experience in a fast-paced environment. LaunchPad, which functions as an internship aggregator, is effectively a jobs ...