Ampion Venture Bus to wrap-up tech startup travels in Tunisia

From the inception of health app in West Africa to an innovative water sanitation solution in Southern Africa and a carpooling service in the East, Ampion Venture Bus is to wrap-up its travels in Tunisia this December.

Everywhere in Africa, the convenience of technology has given citizens the opportunity to speak of their political experiences to a wider audience. This has been evident in Egypt, Kenya, and Tunisia and to acknowledge this the Ampion Venture Bus will slant its focus on tech solutions improving democratic participation.

Filled with local and international entrepreneurs, Ampion’s bus trip encourages participants to work on solutions through the power of mobile technology and ICT to improve the legitimacy of public governance and to strengthen public participation in policy making processes on the African continent.

The startup products developed on the Venture Bus will cover a broad variety of everyday issues in the fields of healthcare, education, transport, consumer empowerment, citizen engagement and more. To assist in the process the Venture Bus will have on board governance experts and members of regional citizens’ initiatives. In addition to these people, international coders, designers and business experts from all across the world work together with Africa’s most talented entrepreneurs to shape the future of the African markets will be aboard.

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The Venture Bus’ path has been mapped to start in Tunis, making stops in Kairouan, Tozeur, Gabes and Sfax in between to connect the regional startup ecosystems and visit several local innovation Hubs for workshops, mentoring and pitches.

The teams will set camp there in the Sahara desert for one night. The opening event is to be held at Tunis’ most popular co-working space Cogite. The winners of Venture Bus Tunisia 2014 will be honoured at the Grand Finale, and will take place in the premises of renowned private school ESPRIT (École Supérieure Privée d’Ingénierie et de Technologie) on December 19.

So far the Ampion Venture Bus has created 24 startups where innovative ventures such as Halt Ebola, a fast and efficient information network tailored to deal with healthcare crisis, E-Maji – a smart, real-time water quality testing unit which can be used with any of the 700 000 boreholes across the continent to improve access to clear water and JamboCar, East Africa’s very first carpooling service, were created.

The best startups from this Venture Bus will be rewarded with a Fellowship Programme for six months. The fellowship includes mentoring, free office spaces and funding and introduces the entrepreneurs to Ampion’s extensive network in Africa.