Mobile startups M4JAM & KaasLaam to represent SA at M-Days conference

M-Days’ recent pitch event saw two South African mobile startups win an all-expenses paid trip to Frankfurt, Germany where they will be given a chance to showcase their products to an international audience next year. Micro-jobbing service, M4JAM from Cape Town, and community network KaasLaam from Johannesburg, were dubbed the winners out of a total batch of 20 startups that pitched.

With the local conferences running with the theme “Mobile in Africa Rising — Wake up World”, supported organisations such as GfK, Mobile Monday and South Africa’s Mobile Marketing Association hope to encourage innovation in the mobile tech space locally.

KaasLaam lets people share music, ideas, friendships, relationships and so forth. Started by Thabiso Lionel Madiba, the social network has over 13 features that range from polls, events, videos, blogs, games and projects that people can share and contribute to. KaasLaam is different from other social media platforms as it is geo-location based all around, making content more relevant.

M4JAM launched a month ago on WeChat. On its launch day, the microjobbing service boasted over 7 404 tasks completed. People get paid small amounts for jobs that can range from marketing surveys, geo-location authentication, and mystery shopping campaigns. Co-Founder of M4JAM, Andre Hugo, tells Ventureburn that winning such a challenge is a great sign of confidence for a one-month old company:

“M4JAM is really proud of winning the M-Days trip to Frankfurt. Given that we are such a new startup, winning has boosted our confidence and made the hard work and sleepless nights of the last few months worthwhile. We really look forward to the trip to learn from Europe’s best.”