Online learning in South Africa is still in its infancy. But many regard the African continent as the next frontier of online education, with the market showing signs of massive potential and room for investment. Daptio is on the supply side of this chain and hopes to "bring things back on track" by using deep analytics, and providing personalised learning to teachers, students and content creators in Africa and other emerging markets through its online software service. UNISA (University of South ...

Talking with African entrepreneurs, one of the recurring topics is the difficulty of sufficient funding in seed- or early-stage with internationally acknowledged and well-connected investors. The recently born African digital ecosystem has only a few established venture capital funds, and even these funds usually have limited available capital with a minimal international network. Understandably, this limited available capital results in a serious constraint in the later stages of funding (Series A and Series B) for any aspiring start-up. The lack of ...

Last year when former FNB head Michael Jordaan joined South African instant messaging service Mxit as chairman, we heard that his new aspirations were to learn more about innovation and investing in startups. Soon after, Jordaan launched his first VC firm, MonteGray Capital. Today, news came about that the first companies getting a cash injection from MonteGrey include interesting tech companies such as Multisource, Bright Black and Execmobile. Jordaan has mentioned before that he's interested in "disruptive technologies that will ...

A recent study by IBM titled Setting the pace in Africa: How IT leaders deliver on the potential of emerging technologies has revealed that 36% of businesses in Africa could be considered as prioritizing and rapidly adopting technologies. This forward-thinking approach to business is crucial for Africa's future economic growth, it argues. The survey looked at 180 Africa-based IT leaders across 29 industries in countries such Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco. This gives us a bird's eye view ...

Today, the Nigerian Ministry of Communication Technology announced the Open Data Development Initiative to help drive innovation, investment and economic growth by enabling access to government data. The Initiative will open up high value datasets from across government ministries to Nigerian citizens, businesses and the rest of the world, for free. The Open Data Development Initiative aims to highlight the potential efficiency, innovations and public value that can be achieved when government uses technology to open its data to the ...

Guybox is a trimonthly service that sends out packages filled with men's essentials such as underwear, socks and deodorant. This is not a try-before-you-buy subscription service like the ever popular Birchbox or South Africa's Rubybox. Instead, Guybox's mission is to free men from the grind of picking up grooming essentials. The Pretoria-based service is a one man show. Its founder, Oscar Baruffa, says that Guybox delivers the convenience of a curated basket of essentials aimed at men, without the frustration, boredom ...

Budgeting apps will never go out of style. Until people stop worrying about where their precious money is mysteriously disappearing, personal finance management tools such as ExpenZa won't get old. The company has recently announced that it has had a surge of user activity in the last three months and has processed transactions worth more than R1-billion. Based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, ExpenZa is an app available to Android users with the need to effectively organize their income and expenses. ...

Ask people about the state of customer service and there is a good chance that they will be able to tell you at least five stories of terrible experiences –- and not many positive ones. In a recent survey of more than 400 South African customers, 72% said that they had experienced rage with a business at least once in the last four months. Anyone who has tried to solve a problem with a bank, airline booking, or mobile phone ...

If bandwidth is like water, then Africa is a desert with Perrier vending machines everywhere. If you have money, you’re fine. If you don’t have money, you’re dying of thirst. Although over 70% of Africans have a mobile phone, and over 90% are covered by mobile networks, less than 10% use the internet. That means most Africans can’t email CVs, research Wikipedia, self-diagnose health problems, or generally find out what is happening in the world. We all know ...

Things are getting exciting with Heirs Holdings. The pan-African proprietary investment company founded by Tony O Elumelu has just announced its investment in Silicon Valley-based startup Planet Labs. Founded in 2010, the tech startup specialises in Earth imaging satellite network with open data access. Last year the company launched a number of demonstration CubeSats, Dove 1, Dove 2, Dove 3 and Dove 4, which circle the planet in low orbit. Planet Labs' 'Doves' are supposedly "significantly cheaper to produce and ...