The winners of the 2013 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (AAE) has been announced at a Gala Awards Ceremony held in Mauritius by the African Leadership Network (ALN) on Thursday, 3 October. The award show is sponsored by the philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network that hopes to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. There's a total number of five winners (from 12 nominees) all ranging from different industries such as technology, manufacturing, social development and agriculture. Quoted by Bizcommunity ...

The sharing economy is growing like crazy. For cars alone, Uber has led the charge for other apps like Lyft, GetAround, and SideCar. In terms of hotels, Airbnb heads the pack. And now, in the travel industry, crowdsourcing for local tour guides is becoming a serious trend. The concept that all of these startups have is simple. Coordinate with local tour guides to develop tours for travellers – some conventional, some very adventurous – and serve them up in a ...

Electrical problems are prevalent for most of Africa, in some countries like Nigeria, people and businesses rely on generators to get the power they need, in a country like Zambia, they depend on hydro-power. This reliance on hydro-power is problematic for Zambia though, especially for small businesses, because if there is a drought there can be severe economic risks. In a bid to help divide the load of power production in Zambia, and increase availability, the African Development Bank (AfDB) ...

Starting a business isn't easy. Anyone who's tried to do it will tell you that. And if you haven't started one, you have a serious failure of imagination if the thought of it doesn't scare you just a little bit. It can be a little less scary, however, with the right kind of guidance. During the One Young World Summit in Johannesburg, a group of young people from around the globe got a taste of that guidance from a set ...

Getting to know your customers can be tricky in a near anonymous online world. While demographics might give you an indication of what the environment might look like, online profiling puts you on the front lines of getting to know your customers. According to a recent study by MasterCard, people adopt personas when shopping online -- an interesting consideration for ecommerce businesses. The Digital Sharing and Trust Project shows that consumers actually shed their “real-world” identities when they go online to ...

It's good that we acknowledge entrepreneurs, but I think we sometimes forget to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit -- that subtle and yet powerful notion many of us harbour to pursue a business idea. Entrepreneurs don't fit a particular mold. The greats -- Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, for example -- all illustrate a passion and a belief in the ideas they found compelling. Sure, we can also see independence, resourcefulness and admire the excellent problem ...

If you're heading up a concept or startup stage venture, you might find Startup Knight worth your time. The Cape Town-based competition slash mini-accelerator, is prepared to buy your innovative, concept phase idea for R100 000. More mature or "startup phase" companies can walk away with an acceleration bundle: a R100 000 development contract and an additional and R100 000 marketing prize. The competition, run by software company Byte Orbit, is coming back for round two. The inaugural version of Startup ...

Need a friendly new washing machine, perhaps? With the online shopping industry heating up in South Africa ApplianceOnline has recently launched with the dream of becoming country's largest appliance ecommerce venture. With existing competitors in the space such as Yuppiechef and Takealot, this startup wants to set itself apart by creating a place you can find your perfect appliance match. Customers can get their hands on a wide range of fridges, freezers, ovens, stoves, dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers, among ...

Every startup wants to be cool right? Well, how do you go about doing this and how can you benefit from improving your image? In an industry that builds so much hype, it’s a given that your startup’s brand is of utmost importance. But what’s probably more important than having an established likeable brand is the need to actually follow up on your promises. So what is this "cool"? Defining what is cool stems from originality, exclusivity and then bridging the ...

Saying education has a role to play in entrepreneurship seems superfluous. It's not just about educating students though, teachers need to be taught how to help foster entrepreneurship too -- after all, a well-positioned teacher can be a powerful mentor to an aspiring entrepreneur. What of the government's role in fostering entrepreneurship though? During a panel discussion at the African Entrepreneurship Summit 2013 (#africasummit) in Mauritius, there was an interesting debate between IKED and Intentac's Thomas Andersson and the government of ...