Starting today, one of South Africa's most popular online payment service, PayFast, is enabling sellers using its services to easily start accepting bitcoin payments from local and international buyers. This news comes after PayFast entered into an partnership with South Africa’s biggest bitcoin exchange, BitX, which will allow buyers to make bitcoin payments to PayFast's 30 000 merchant clients. Customers shopping online now have the option to either pay using Mastercard, Visa, Instant EFT, or bitcoin. Moreover, the system is unique in ...

After four years at the head of one of South Africa’s fastest-growing ecommerce companies, Cape Town entrepreneurs Wayne Gosling and Daniel Guasco have announced their departure from deal-of-the-day platform Groupon South Africa in search of new opportunities. "Our strengths lie in creating businesses," explains Gosling. Guasco adds "We’ve built a team that has generated hundreds of millions of Rands worth of revenue per year and won the SA ecommerce Award each year. It is a brand that is going to ...

Photo-editing startup Over is all about inspiration. Just follow its Instagram account and you'll find a range of motivational -- often quirky -- images overlaid with memorable quotes. But it's not just the product that makes a lasting impact. Behind the pretty photos, the filters and the fonts, the company and the people running it are a shining example of what can be achieved locally. Founded by American entrepreneur Aaron Marshall but born out of South Africa, the company has ...

In celebration of Mandela Day on 18 July, Seed Engine is offering one hopeful South African entrepreneur a free ten-week course through their business startup competition. The startup accelerator will grant early stage entrepreneurial hopefuls the chance to "build successful businesses" with free training via the company's academy -- a prize valued at R16 000. The South African entrepreneur with the best business plan will also have access to training classes in an accelerator-style model, which aim to develop leadership and ...

Since it launched mid-2013, Carmudi has shown to be one of Rocket Internet's fastest expanding startups. The online car classifieds startup has launched an app across 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East to leverage some of the world's largest mobile markets. Carmudi lists more than 200 000 vehicles and, through the app, people can browse or buy cars on-the-go. Africa and the Middle-East is often referred to as the fastest growing mobile region. To give you an idea, ...

South African Breweries (SAB) is celebrating Nelson Mandela Day in the spirit of entrepreneurship on 18 July. At The Lean Jump event, 67 startups from Gauteng, South Africa are encouraged to present their business ideas in just over a minute each, in order to partake in SAB KickStart development programme and standing a chance of winning a share of R300 000 investment. Entrepreneurs with successful pitches on Mandela Day will be provided with six months of virtual business mentorship as well ...

It's the end of the work day, I get into my Uber and settle in for a contemplative ride home. The driver begins the trip and starts a meter as well. I am not sure why he has done the latter but I say nothing and we begin. Half way through the ride as I direct him toward the turn into my neighbourhood, he says to me: "don't worry about the meter, it is just a precaution." My first thought ...

Innovation hub, The LaunchLab, is currently looking for participants in its latest entrepreneurial programme starting 21 July and finalising 25 October. Situated in Stellenbosch, South Africa the hub offers a range of programmes and workshops centered around tech and innovation. Entrepreneurs who enter will stand a chance to win R15 000 (US$1 500) and will hopefully gain the essential skills to scale their businesses. Some of the themes covered in the programme include testing the market viability of an idea, building ...

The GSMA pan-African mHealth Initiative (PAMI) is receiving support from Gemalto -- one of the world's leaders in digital security. The initiative aims to strengthen a mobile ecosystem to ultimately improve maternal and child health and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. PAMI brings together important stakeholders from the mobile, health and public industries. Last year, the GSMA recorded 253 million unique mobile subscribers across Sub-Saharan Africa. On top of that there are 250 mHealth services currently in operation across the region. This ...

I have a penchant for books about entrepreneurship and starting a business from almost nothing. Books about ideas, making those ideas work for you and the importance of building a sustainable company. So when I got asked to review Seth Rotherham's foray into the world of lessons learnt from starting an online business I thought, why not? The book, titled Work is a Sideline. Live the holiday, arrived at my desk via a messenger fairy with a note of thanks ...