People are spoiled for choice when it comes to email marketing services. For example, internationally there is MailChimp, iContact, Benchmark and Campaign Monitor, while Everlytic, and Graphic Mail have made their marks on the South African market. Dashing into the fray comes Total Send, an email marketing service from Cape Town. It's pièce de résistance? Aggressive pricing. Total Send's founder Luke Wingfield Digby believes that the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO) scenes have become too crowded and expensive. ...

Last year the first ever DEMO Africa conference was held in Kenya featuring 40 startups from around the continent. Now, months later, African tech entrepreneur Jon Gosier and the AppsAfrica team have released a mini documentary showcasing a rarely seen part of the tech world, the startup ecosystem of Africa. "Inside DEMO Africa", features interviews with key players in the African tech ecosystem, from entrepreneurs to angel investors, venture capitalists, philanthropists, incubators and government officials. The conference, which is part ...

SeedStarsWorld is putting on the world's biggest startup competition. The event which touts itself as the an "exclusive worldwide competition", is held in 20 countries through 2013 to discover the best startups in emerging markets and regions with vibrant startup communities. The competition travels from country to country giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain a spot in the finals. The event format gives entrepreneur exactly six minutes to pitch their business idea in front of a jury made up of local ...

Just over a year ago we told you about Munyuki Manatsa, the Zimbabwean university graduate who built an online hip-hop community from an internet café. His efforts grabbed international attention, and now he's trying to raise funding to further build the project. Manatsa decided to build the site, called mixdem, in part because he was frustrated with after struggling to find employment once he graduated from university. There were a couple of obstacles he had to overcome first though. For ...

Where there’s a problem there's a solution. Where there’s a solution there’s a business opportunity. Understanding what the gaps and success stories are in making a country ready for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) innovation and transformation is crucial for startups and potential investors alike. More relevant and better research could help define markets for potential entrepreneurs for example. Location-based services are also good examples of how mobile internet connectivity could increase a company’s effectiveness and its market reach. The ...

There's no rest for the weary with startup accelerator 88mph. Right off the bat of closing its 2013 Cape Town incubation programme, the accelerator is moving to Kenya for its Nairobi leg, and applications are now open. The three-month programme gives winning applicants up to an US$100 000 investment, as well as access to business networks to quickly grow their business ideas into fully realised marketable and scalable companies. 88mph's strategy has been, and will be for the foreseeable future, ...

Things are looking good for Rocket Internet companies. Namshi, a Middle East-based online fashion store from the German Incubator, has secured funding to the tune of US$13-million from growth equity firm Summit Partners. The online store, which launched in 2012, follows the same template as most of the company's fashion outlets, including South Africa's Zando and Zalando in Germany. The Middle East iteration is touted as the "fastest-growing" online store for fashion and lifestyle and serves customers in six countries: the ...

It's obvious that Africa really is pushing an entrepreneurial agenda at the moment. Africa 2.0 is an entrepreneurship competition aimed at bringing together startups in a workshop format following the Startup Weekend model. Africa 2.0 is a Pan-African organisation made up of more than 300 people from Africa and the Diaspora. According to the collective, it shares a vision for Africa and "a commitment to finding and implementing sustainable solutions capable of leapfrogging the development of the continent". Startups pitch ...

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 ...

Prodigy Finance is a fascinating company. It takes elements of micro-lending, as well as some proprietary risk-assessment practices, and applies them to MBA students seeking out funding. The result is effectively a loan network comprising of top MBA students, and alumni (the investors) from around the world -- including high net-worth individuals from emerging markets -- who can invest in their region's future business leaders. Founded by South Africans Cameron Stevens (CEO), and Ryan Steele (COO), the company is a registered ...