Star Publications, a media company in Malaysia which also runs Star Publications, has just launched a MYD 20 million (US$6.59 million) fund to invest in Malaysian startups. The fund, called The Star Accelerator Fund is offered in two forms: pre-seed fund and the seed fund. The pre-seed fund provides each applicant with up to MYR 300,000 (US$98,800) while the seed fund offers support of up to MYR 1 million (US$329,000) per applicant. The decision on which fund to apply for ...

We have the pleasure of presenting the Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Africa report compiled by the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic foundation established by Pierre Omidyar -- the founder of eBay -- in partnership with global strategy consulting film, Monitor Group. This epic 48-page report is the result of a three-phase research project launched in 2012 aimed to better understand the state of entrepreneurship in Africa. The project started with a survey of 582 entrepreneurs across six Sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, ...

Having set up shop in Johannesburg earlier this year, the Founder Institute is now looking to expand to Cape Town. The Founder Institute is an early-stage startup accelerator and global launch network with a part-time four month programme. The idea is that entrepreneurs can launch their dream company with training, feedback, and support from experienced startup CEOs, while not being required to quit their day job. The Founder Institute touts its "Graduate Liquidity Pool" which ropes in graduates and mentors ...

When we first wrote about mobi.lity, the traveller information startup from Cape Town, it had already won a pitch to Western Cape transport agency, Metrorail for its prototype mobile transit app. A short while later, Metrorail officially adopted the service and rebranded it as GoMetro. Since then, GoMetro has seen impressive adoption, and it has become an indispensable utility for over 600 000 railway commuters in South Africa. Through a partnership with iROKO Partners, the world’s largest online distributor of African ...

Analysing social media chatter is getting more important than ever and for brands it's one of the key ways of measuring sentiment. A group of young developers from the University of Johannesburg think they have come up with an "innovative tool" that will allow businesses to not only monitor chatter on social platforms but also gain a better understand the data. The young entrepreneurs behind the product, SentiMeter, are finalists in Microsoft's Imagine Cup, a global technology competition in Russia later ...

When we last checked in on SnapBill, the cloud-based Swiss Army knife of recurring billing systems, it was yet to execute on its international ambitions. Today, SnapBill supports 34 currencies and claims the type of flexibility that allows it to handle just about any tax configuration. SnapBill endeavours to be a complete billing solution. Its users can bill their clients as well as add recurring products and services to their clients' accounts to automate the entire invoicing and payment collection process. A ...

In order to lure startups and foreign investment, the Brazilian government is promoting visas and other incentives for foreign businesses to relocate to the country. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has announced a US$78-million investment in an attempt to spur growth of up to 100 domestic and foreign technology entrepreneurs. This is taking form in programmes such as Startup Brasil which is attempting to "aggregate groups of actors and institutions" in order to accelerate the startup's process by ...

Enterprise companies are increasingly looking to startups for innovation. The SAP Startup Focus programme saw, eight finalists -- selected from 50 across Africa -- pitch their ideas on how to best leverage the real-time capabilities of SAP HANA, the real-time business insight database platform. The judging panel included Kaustav Mitra, who leads the SAP Startup Focus programme, as well as senior SAP specialists based in Palo Alto, California. SAP Startup Focus is a global effort aimed at driving adoption of the SAP ...

Sam Hutchinson is co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Everlytic, the unified messaging platform for sharing content via email, mobile, and social media. South Africans Hutchinson and Josh Adler started Prefix Technologies in 2004. When the duo began tailoring email newsletters for the publishing industry, Everlytic was born -- a general email and mobile marketing platform. Today, Everlytic ties together email marketing, social sharing and analytics with support for popular CMSes like WordPress and Drupal. Clients can measure and track campaigns ...

Hellocomputer and Draftfcb are all set to host the first of their tri-annual hack-a-thon of 2013 at their Johannesburg office, in May. The frenetic 48-hour event briefs and pits teams against each other to produce the most innovative and refreshing "invention" from whatever means necessary -- no matter how bizarre or unconventional those means might be. It's a no holds barred experience, and one many talented tech-savvy (programmers, engineers) and creative (designers) individuals should consider for the opportunities it might well provide. The ...