Venture Talk: Is innovation in Africa good or bad?

Innovation in Africa — good or bad? In our first Venture Talk, Mich Atagana chats to Sarah Rice, Head of Communications at Mxit, Rapelang Rabana, founder of Yeigo Communications, and Brett Commaille, co-founder and CEO of AngelHub about the current innovation scene in Africa.

The group’s discussion looks at what role the current innovation hype plays in Africa’s startup scene. Generally, Africa’s startup industry is still young and full of excitement. Is it being over exaggerated?

Is there too much innovation? Could this hype be the death of Africa’s tech world?

The group also looks at the fact that too many startups fail as they simply don’t seem to have adequate financial strategies. Also, investors are too skittish to get involved. Why is this the case?

They then take a look at how important it is to manage the balance between optimism and realism in the startup environment. Although this young and attractive industry seems to lure many problem-solvers, they easily fall prey to failure because they don’t have sustainable business models.

They go on to talk about why failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing or the end of the road. The discussion is rounded off looking at promising industries we should keep a lookout for.