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Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [13/08/2018]
Curious about alternative ways to raise money for your startup? If you're in Joburg you might want to join FundEx 2018, a one-day conference taking place on Thursday (16 August) which will explore funding opportunities for entrepreneurs. In keeping with Women's Month, why not join the African Women in Fintech and Payments breakfast this Friday in Cape Town? In East Africa, join an i-Talks panel discussion on idea poaching this Thursday (16 August) in Nairobi. Across the continent, in Lagos, Nigeria, CcHUB Nigeria accelerator programmes manager Francis Sani will look at how entrepreneurs can build digital ventures. This article is part of a weekly...
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Egyptian fintechs score with sandbox after AUC Venture Lab, Temenos deal
Fintech startups in Egypt will be able to test their new products and services in a sandbox, following an announcement today that university accelerator AUC Venture Lab will collaborate with banking software company Temenos. The deal was announced in a press release today by Geneva-based Temenos and AUC Venture Lab, which is located at The American University in Cairo . Among other things, the agreement will see Temenos provide a sandbox service to the startups that utilise the accelerator. Over the past five years the AUC Venture Lab has accelerated 115 startups. The sandbox is a non-production cloud-based version of the Temenos T24 core banking system. It will enable startups to...
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Let’s do it for ourselves Africa and stop copying overseas tech trends [Opinion]
I like comparing the startup scene in South Africa to where hip hop was in the country about 10 years ago. Artists trying to imitate what the Americans were doing -- fake American accents, no vernac in their songs and oversized clothes which failed dismally and did not connect with the audience. Fast-forward and now in the forefront with artists like Cassper Nyovest hip hop has become one of the most popular and lucrative genres. It is the biggest driver of urban youth culture purely because they “pivoted” and embraced their SA identity these artists are not only successful with their music but have...
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Three tech startups tapped for inaugural Savca Industry Awards
Three SA tech startups -- fintech i-Pay, on demand cleaning platform SweepSouth, and meal delivery site Ucook -- are among nine companies that have been shortlisted for the inaugura Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (Savca) Industry Awards. The nominees were announced today (10 August) in a press release by Savca, in partnership with banking and asset managing group Investec. The awards, which recognise portfolio companies that have thrived from private equity and venture capital investment in the region, will take place on 8 November. The shortlisted companies range from startups to large companies, and represent various sizes of private equity and venture capital investments. To be nominated for the Savca Industry...
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What’s the secret ingredient that makes entrepreneurs successful? [Opinion]
Am I an entrepreneur? It’s the question asked of me the most. It’s the question I thought would be the perfect start to this regular column on entrepreneurship, venture capital and the world of startups – a sector of our economy which is booming. Despite the economic and political challenges we face in the country, our startup scene is a parallel universe of overwhelming optimism, innovation, job creation, creativity and wealth creation. When we were in the midst of downgrades, juxtaposed was the country’s startup sector with positive news of new funds coming online, startups winning funding, and entrepreneurs exiting from...
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Startup Guide calls on those in Cape Town to be part of new guide
Startup Guide, a publishing company, has launched a call for entrepreneurs and those that are part of the Cape Town entrepreneurship ecosystem to nominate themselves to be featured in Startup Guide Cape Town. Nominations close on 20 August. The call was launched earlier this week. Startup Guide, which was founded in 2014 by Danish entrepreneur Sissel Hansen, calls it the "first-ever entrepreneurial handbook dedicated to Cape Town’s startup scene". The guide will be sponsored by SAP Next-Gen. Startup Guide produces guidebooks and tools to help entrepreneurs navigate and connect with different startup scenes across the globe. Thus far it has produced guides for 18 different cities in Europe and the Middle...
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Skynamo’s Sam Clarke selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur
Sam Clarke, the CEO of Stellenbosch based field sales management software company Skynamo is the latest South African to be selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur. Clarke was part of 17 entrepreneurs leading 11 companies from seven countries that were selected by Endeavor at their latest International Selection Panel (ISP), held in Detroit in the US from last Monday to Wednesday (30 July to 1 August). In a press release earlier this week, Clarke said being selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur had been a "profoundly rewarding experience" for him and his team. “The journey started 16 months ago when we failed to get through the local Endeavor selection process...
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Jack Ma challenges Africans to seize opportunities, announces $10m prize
Jack Ma, the Alibaba Group founder and UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) special envoy, today challenged African entrepreneurs to seize the opportunities presented to them. Ma, who is on his second trip to Africa, was speaking at a special event organised by the Alibaba Business School, Unctad and the Jack Ma Foundation where he announced a new $10-million prize to support African entrepreneurs (see more here). Ma described African entrepreneurs as being "first class" and said although the continent has plenty of problems, it is also "full of opportunities". He called on innovators to look at challenges like lack of infrastructure and poor logistics...
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Here’s all you need to know about Jack Ma’s Africa Netpreneur Prize
Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma today (8 August) announced the launch of the Africa Netpreneur Prize which he said was "just the beginning, and a test". Here's all you need to know about it. The prize will support and support and fund African entrepreneurs who are working to address Africa’s most important challenges and further its digital economy through local entrepreneurship. He detailed the prize at a special event held today in Johannesburg and organised by the Alibaba Business School, Unctad and the Jack Ma Foundation. Read more: Jack Ma challenges Africans to seize opportunities, announces $10m prize The prize -- which will focus on...
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URGENT: Jack Ma speech to be streamed live from 1pm Central African Time
Want to hear entrepreneur Jack Ma speak? Here's your chance to hear the Alibaba Group founder speak -- today. Ma is due to address an event that takes place today in Joburg. His speech at the event -- Netpreneurs: The Rise of Africa’s Digital Lions -- will be streamed live on YouTube from 1pm Cenral African Time. The four-hour event, which is an initiative of the Alibaba Business School, Unctad and the Jack Ma Foundation, will be held at the Linder Auditorium located at Wits Parktown Education Campus. Yesterday (7 August), Unctad announced in a post on its Facebook page that the event will be streamed here. Jack Ma will launch a prize and...
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