Entrepreneurship in townships has been on the rise with a lot of young, intellectual business leaders shaping their communities through innovative ideas and solutions for the many challenges South Africa faces -- from chronic medication delivery systems to dry bath solutions and medical detection kits. This year’s eKasi Entrepreneurship Week, happening during the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Cape Town Khayelitsha, will feature key elements including the eKasi Business Venture Competition, the eKasi Business Awards, Touring eKasi, #eKasiEXPO, legal clinic consultations, ...

The 2013 Enterprise Mobility Africa (EMA) Summit will be taking place on the 25th and 26th of November in Johannesburg. The summit's agenda will explore the impact of mobility solutions across a range of industries, as well as the opportunities, and downfalls, they may create. The two-day event will see thought leaders from the IT and mobility sectors coming together to address industry challenges such as big data and the mobile platform, and mobility as an enabler for enterprises to ...

Online merchants can reduce payment page abandonment by focussing on a few key changes to their payment page which can increase checkout conversion rates. Customising the payment page will limit problems and help cardholders feel secure. Although one would most likely expect that many of the below points are expected norms, I have often experienced frustration at the time of purchase and seen issues surrounding the merchants payment page which either led me to repeating the payment process or bailing ...

Microsoft is expanding its venture partnership programme into Africa though its 4Afrika initiative, starting with Kenya. "The Ventures partnership programme, which was introduced in June 2013, is designed to bring tools, technology and training to startups through partnerships with global accelerators," says the software giant. According to Microsoft, its Ventures division was created to give startups a leg-up and Kenya is quickly being recognised as an innovation hub, particularly in the mobility space. It’s been reported that there are 74 mobile ...

Vinod Khosla, famed investor in Indiegogo, Storify, Jawbone, and more, went on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013 and said: “95 percent of VCs add zero value and 70 to 80 percent of VCs add negative value to a startup in advising you.” The statement was met with a huge round of applause by a room full of hundreds of entrepreneurs in the room. At the StartMeUp event in April, Singaporean investor Jeffrey Paine also told us that “you shouldn’t listen to ...

Springleap made a name for itself selling t-shirts based on crowdsourced designs. It was more or less an African version of Threadless, with artists’ designs voted on by the Springleap community and the winning design emblazoned on t-shirts which go up for sale. While the company claims to have been reasonably successful, founder Eran Eyal decided that it was time for a change. Speaking to Ventureburn, Eyal detailed how he took complete control of the company and set about transforming it ...

Smart farming startup, SmartFarm has been announced as the winner of this year's IBM SmartCamp Africa as part of the company's Global Entrepreneurship program. The competition which was held in conjunction with the Tech4Africa conference and Angel investment network AngelHub. Every year IBM puts together SmartCamp sessions that showcase some of the world’s most promising startups and the companies have to be less than five years old. "IBM SmartCamps judge the best startup companies in different cities around the globe, rewarding ...

Mountains, wine and more wine. These are the three things the small Western Cape student town Stellenbosch is probably most well-known for. Those, and the university of course, are responsible for creating an environment that inspires and stimulates innovation. Needles to say, the town has seen its share of startups. Below is a list of some interesting Stellenbosch-based startups that I found very interesting. Apart from the fact that the Stellenbosch University is probably one of the greatest contributors to fostering ...

This week's Startup Blitz features hardware startup Stroke Tech. Founders Thys Pretorius (CEO) and Matt Pretorius (Sales and Social Media) applied bone conduction technology -- which sends sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull -- to a modern use: water sports communication and entertainment. Currently Stroke Tech has two prototypes, a communication device which allows a swimmer/surfer/kite boarder et al, to hear instructions from a coach, or listen to their friends all the while keeping their ear ...

There's no denying that being a retailer in 2013 is a whole different chapter in the how-to-run-a-successful-store handbook. Your customers used to wander through the aisles of your nicely plotted and polished shop, now they're asking questions on Facebook, expecting your site to give them all the information they need on whatever device they choose and taking to Twitter to complain when their order takes an extra day to arrive. They know what they want, how they want it and ...