Economies can lose billions of dollars due to piracy and IP infringement. Therefore, a country that values intellectual property (IP) can potentially create an excellent environment for IT innovation and economic growth. The 2008 survey conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC) revealed that Kenya could create 977 IT jobs and the local IT industry could contribute $73.60 million to GDP (an increase of $40.01 million) by reducing the current 80% software piracy rate by 10 percentage points over four years. Perhaps ...

RIM is doing something really interesting in the education sector. While the Canadian headquartered BlackBerry manufacturer is preparing to launch its make-or-break Blackberry 10 platform, its efforts to grow its BlackBerry developer ecosystem in South Africa is continuing to cultivate entrepreneurs. RIM has established two BlackBerry apps labs in the country with which it hopes to both accelerate mobile apps development for its own platform, and to create new job opportunities in the mobile space. Recently, its apps lab at ...

If you are building a consumer internet business, you have probably spent 90 percent of your time on product development, building a team, chasing funding, and defending your decision not to get a “real job” to your mother. If you are lucky, then you spent the other 10 percent getting some sleep. The one area of execution that I typically see startups least equipped to tackle is advertising. As I have written before, there is a dangerous and false notion that products ...

Tech is the future and fostering innovation is in vogue. South Africa's Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) is in agreement. According to a Business Day report, the agency is dedicated to helping grow innovation in the country has approved a R100-million venture capital fund to help VCs help fund startups. According to the report, the agency -- which received an allocation of R433-million in this financial year -- has been under some strain questioning if this was part of its ...

"The Hardware Renaissance". It's unmissable. Paul Graham has noticed it and, certainly, my credit card has. Where once, entrepreneurs turned to software to form their 'next big thing', there is an increasing trend towards hardware in this space and, while many would seem to point to the likes of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms as the driving force behind this shift, I believe that the credit should really be handed to two guys in Cupertino who changed the way the ...

The South African tech startup scene is burning up right now. At every corner there is a new startup competition attempting to pave the way for young entrepreneurs. Greenpop came out tops during the Enterprise Elevator pitch event yesterday. The event was part of an initiative that supports South African "entrepreneurs in the startup or early stage of their development to prepare for and secure an investment partner". Greenpop was one of six startups that pitched in front of a panel ...

Absa has launched what it claims is a world first with the Payment Pebble -- a mobile payments device designed especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses. The device, scheduled for launch in 2013, is a partnership between the bank and South African payment innovations company thumbzup. It allows to accept debit or credit card payments using their smartphones or tablets in a similar fashion to the likes of Square in the US. Absa claims however that it is a "major ...

Countries around the African continent have a chance to do something really special when it comes to news innovation. With a highly mobile literate population and growing middle classes, these countries have the chance to shed the weight of old media far more readily than countries with more developed economies. Without support however, the chances of those innovations surviving and prospering are fairly slim. That's where competitions like the Africa News Innovation Challenge come in. The challenge, which recently announced ...

India is taking its place as a growing technology powerhouse, with a number of mobile startups looking to make a name for themselves. During this year's MobiSparks conference, the organizers showcased 14 of the country's hottest examples. This growing startup space in India is recognised by global Venture Capital firm, Sequoia Capital whose India head noted the 2013 will be critical for India as majority of the mobile startups in the world will come from the country. "In the next 12-18 months ...

There are many issues that African tech startup entrepreneurs have to deal with in building successful global businesses, but I'd like to highlight these four points because I believe they are particularly important for the ever-growing African tech scene. 1. Be open to partnerships I have identified two main kinds of partnerships: the first kind is based more on the core team itself. Your early employees or co-founders will bring complementary skill sets to make your team a stronger one. These co-founders ...