Professional or amateur, ViGO is said to be for anyone who wants to create their own website. ViGO is a Cape Town-based software company that's determined to take on the CMS (Content Managing System) giants of the world. It provides an online tool that allows anyone to create websites, blogs or online portfolios. The company is built on the philosophy of keeping its platform simple in terms of flexibility and functionality. Last month the company's platform called myViGO, was launched. It ...

There is a lot of talk about the great “African Growth Story”, but talk is one thing, when it comes to actually participating, the road map is not so clear. As an investor interested in entering Africa, and benefitting from the opportunities that exist within the fast-growing continent, there are quite limited options. As a first port of call, investors often turn to public financial markets as a means of investing in a region of their choice. This would entail purchasing ...

We’ve been talking (and talking, and talking) about a rapid prototyping space here in Nairobi for ages. Without the resources to do it, the community got things started on their own with the iHub Robotics Group, who does all kinds of cool meetings; from training newbies like me and my daughters on Arduino and Raspberry Pi, to events where they showcase locally made solar tracking systems and help to run kids hacker camps. This week we’re announcing Gearbox – our makerspace ...

Rwanda is known for its strides in furthering ICT-related policies and its ambitions for tapping into the knowledge economy. In a recent article in The New Times Rwanda, the lack of adequate business skills is claimed to be the biggest obstacle tech entrepreneurs face in the country today. KLab is one of Africa's many tech hubs encouraging and connecting people who drive innovative digital solutions. Martin Carlos Mwizerwa is the acting director of Rwanda's kLab and is also in charge ...

For the past five years, entrepreneur and media mogul Trevor Ncube has advocated for a “Third Way” in Zimbabwean politics. Disillusioned and disappointed with Zimbabwe’s two largest political parties, Ncube envisions a grand political party, made up of the best men and women across the political divide, business community, and civil society. Ncube’s vision sadly remains unfulfilled in the political realm, but has gown roots in Zimbabwe’s budding social media world. Thirty-something accountant Nigel Mugamu (a.k.a. “SirNige”) has succeeded ...

Piccing is on to great things. The "social picture and inspiration sharing platform", as it calls itself, is enjoying rapid growth in user-base, unique visitors to its site, and just secured extra funding. The cherry on top is expansion into South Africa, with a new programming and content development office setting up in Cape Town, South Africa. The web-startup was founded in March 2011 in Palo Alto, California, by European internet entrepreneurs Dirk Spielmann (Zurich, Switzerland), and Nikolaj Zethraeus (Malmö, ...

Ask every startup founder how much time and money they spend on public relations, and the usual answer is “Nothing.” With a limited amount of both resources, entrepreneurs worry about building product and doing sales rather than getting buzz. However, a review of Marissa Mayer’s time at Yahoo! thus far should reveal that not only is PR important, it is vital for early-stage companies to survive. It has been a year since Marissa Mayer started the revolution at Yahoo! – the ...

South African games platform SkillPod Media has announced that its white label gaming solutions for two of the US’s largest publishers, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures Entertainment, have gone live. The company's platform acts as a bridge between publishers and game developers. SkillPod Media's vision is to provide a white label publishing platform that would seamlessly integrate publishers and users. In turn, the platform offers publishers a single content management solution that is fully integrated with multiple game developers. Furthermore, it ...

If Uber hasn't launched in your city yet then you are missing something, because in the last few months the mobile based private car service has been aggressively expanding. The company just got an insane amount of investment from Google Ventures and a few other funders. Think about it this way: if you have US$361.2-million injected into your company, what would you do? Expand expand expand. Things are changing at Uber: the company has revamped its site with a slicker ...

Held in Nairobi Kenya from 24 to 25 October this year, the DEMO Africa conference will feature 40 entrepreneurs hailing from Cape Town to Cairo presenting their innovative technologies. They'll be pitching to a mix of everyone from investors and fellow entrepreneurs to the tech media. So, what can we expect to see? The 40 startups listed below are the ones that have made it through a series of screening processes out of a total of 300 submitted applications this year. ...