Ventureburn is announcing the top five finalists of our Startup Battle. In partnership with Ford and Social Media Week Johannesburg, we will be giving away R25 000, as well as some other prizes, to the most innovative problem-solver that can woo our panel of judges. Ventureburn Editor Michelle Atagana says that although we've been impressed by the amount of exciting feedback from South Africa's startup community, deciding on the top five has been difficult: "This has been very exciting for us. We ...

Corporate, meet entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship, meet corporate. In a grand effort to celebrate small innovative companies in South Africa, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) recently announced the winners of its Vision to Reality accelerators programme. In-store mobile transacting startup WiGroup came up top with transaction authentication service Entersekt given second place. In third, there was a tie between Cape Town animation studio Triggerfish and elearning startup IT School Innovation (ITSI). A first of its kind in South Africa, the top ten finalists were given the opportunity ...

It's a little flippant to say that building a billion dollar company isn't easy. It's a little bit like saying that winning an ultra-marathon isn't easy. Just like an ultra-marathon though, there are certain things you have to get right if you're to have any hope of even competing. But what are those things? How, in other words, do you even know what it is you're supposed to be getting right? Well one person who has a few ideas worth ...

How to be innovative in a country where two decades of civil war and rather noisy neighbours such as Syria keep the focus of media on bombings, turmoil and refugees is a tall order. This is the task the Central Bank of Lebanon tries to answer with its circular 331, which put US$400-million on the table earlier this year, just for startups. This is one percent of the GDP and, as attractive as it may look, it doesn't go without ...

Think startup hotspots and Korea isn't exactly the first country to spring to mind. Thing is, the East Asian country is making some real progress when it comes to entrepreneurship and building a solid startup ecosystem. One of the most visible demonstrations of that is Startup Battle Korea, taking place today as part of the Global Mobile Vision conference in Seoul. These are the 10 companies taking part and aiming to disrupt the world, starting with Korea. 1. TheNextVision Car safety ...

French advertising giant Publicis has confirmed that it is acquiring Cape Town-based integrated advertising agency Machine, something which Ventureburn has been saying was likely to happen for some time now. The agency, created by Habari founder Adrian Hewlett in 2012, will merge with Publicis South Africa and will be rebranded as Publicis Machine. Hewlett will stay on in the top position at Machine, reporting to Kevin Tromp, CEO of Publicis Sub-Saharan Africa for Publicis Worldwide. Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Worldwide said, ...

Nothing scares me more than the thought that one day I might wake up and everything will be illegal. That my every move, however insignificant it is, will be subject to a full disclosure to the government because government has drafted a new law without consulting with me. If, like me, this brings you great discomfort, a tech app might put us at ease. MakeLaw, a non-profit software initiative by Cape Town-based legal technology developer Brendan Hughes seeks to increase the ...

With steed, steel and savviness at hand, South African software development company Byte Orbit recently announced its annual startup competition -- Startup Knight. A third time round, the Startup Knight is on an epic crusade that seeks to empower aspiring tech entrepreneurs and visionaries in South Africa. Cantering with the theme "Technology that Enables", the event is seeking honourable applicants from around the country who are focused on innovations which enable SMEs to operate more efficiently, more competitively or achieve scalability. The ...

Renting startup Ekaya has been timid since we last caught up with CEO Justin Melville in July. This doesn't mean that it's just been sitting around, fiddling it's thumbs. Quite the contrary, as it announces today, the tech startup from Cape Town has in the last few months swayed a handful of Angel investors (both locally and internationally), added a bunch of new features to its product, and is now in open beta for everyone in the Mother City. For ...

Ventureburn Managing editor Michelle Atagana will be jetting into Kenya on Tuesday, 23 September, and is looking to meet-up and chat with Kenyan startup founders. In an effort to profile all the awesome startups that we’ve been writing about, we’re calling all technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers to come and hangout with Atagana, at the popular iHub, Nairobi. Kenya is the darling of Africa's tech and startup community. We've written extensively about the Kenyan and East African tech ecosystem and ...