Looking to get into the South African startup scene or scratch up on some of your skills? Well, you’ve come to the right place. There are loads of competitions, networking sessions and workshops happening around South Africa and the rest of the continent (namely Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana) that we’ve rounded up to make your life a bit easier.
This article is part of a weekly series that highlights all the top startup competitions, networking sessions, workshops and conferences around South Africa, and the greater region. If you have any event recommendations for us to add to the list, or next week’s, please let us know in the comments below or send us an email.
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Not all of the events are free and some will require booking in advance. Please click on the event names to find out more information.
Cape Town
Learning Lunch: Funding Deal Flow with Warren Squires
This month, join us for a session on understanding deal flow and various funding options for fintech startups, from bootstrapping, angel investing, crowd-funding to private equity. Our tech investment expert at Barclays Africa Group, Warren Squires, and Chief Investment Officer of the Seeker Fund will lead the session.
Date: 29 November, 1pm to 2pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock
On Wednesday 30th November we nominate new community members, provide guidance on what each portfolio is to focus on and achieve, and join subcommittees – the implementation engines of the Council Silicon Cape has also recently registered as an NPC, so this will also be a chance for you to learn about the new structure as well as to meet the directors, Daniel Guasco, Zimkhita Buwa, James Milne, Sumarie Roodt and Alexandra Fraser and hear what their plans for 2017 and beyond.
Date: 30 November, 6:30pm to 8pm
Location: Workshop 17, Watershed, V&A Waterfront, Dock Road, Cape Town
For people working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly 1-hour coffee that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com. Unlike other startup meetups, lean (startup) coffee is agendaless, speakerless and talks about what you care about. We each propose topics, vote on them and talk about the most popular ones for a few minutes. Come visit to see how it works.
Date: 30 November, 8:30am to 9:30am
Location: TRUTH. coffeecult, 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
The Power of Storytelling: Raise Money, Win Your Market, Build Your Brand
Join us at Rise Cape Town, created by Barclays, for a live viewing party (light dinner and drinks included), where we will network and then participate in the live stream from Silicon Valley on November, 30th from 18:00 – 22:00. We’ll introduce you to Access Silicon Valley and will be sharing some incredible insights live from Silicon Valley
Date: 30 November, 6pm to 10pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 66-68 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange building, Barclays Rise, Block B, 5th Floor, Woodstock
Cap40 Business Awards Gala 2016
The Cap 40 Gala is an annual event which aims at promoting business or individuals for their outstanding performance and contribution to the French-South African business community in the Western Cape. This year we will also highlight the work of the French Tech CPT initiative launched in 2016. Are you looking for co-founders, partners, coaches, core team members or even a job opportunity? Please join us for an evening of creativity, inspiration and passionate conversations.
Date: 2 December, 6pm to 11pm
Location: Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront, Beach Road, Granger Bay, Cape Town
For aspiring entrepreneurs, their teams and intrapreneur teams who want to dramatically accelerate their idea in nine days, Techqala is a practical business launcher. Techqala is 9-day programme of guidance, talks, practical exercises, mentorship and direct access to experts that will take your start-up through a dramatic growth cycle – much of it outdoors in some of the most spectacular locations in Cape Town.
Date: 2 December, 6pm
Location: Cape Town
Johannesburg
Focusing on building long-term business relationships through word of mouth referrals. We are looking for professionals in selected industries to join us and were we tap into one another’s networks to grow each of our businesses.
Date: 30 November, 7:00am to 8:30am
Location: The Street Cafe (Rosebank Union Church), 40 St Andrews Road, Johannesburg
We bet you have found it difficult to connect with potential clients at conferences and events in the past. You arrive with a stack of business cards and the best of intentions. Psyched up to start chatting with a random person about what you do during a short coffee break. Most of us struggle with this. Now imagine going to an event where you sit down with multiple professionals, business owners and potential investors, one at a time, face to face, and have their undivided attention. Imagine introducing your business to 100’s of people all in one evening. How many new clients do you need weekly to grow your business? Five? Ten? Thirty? BSD (Business Speed Dating) offers you this opportunity on a weekly basis.
Date: 1 December, 5:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: Radisson Blu Hotel, Rivonia Road, Sandton, Johannesburg
Kenya
The Power of Storytelling: Raise Money, Win Your Market, Build Your Brand
Join us for an evening meetup & networking session. We’ll introduce you to Access Silicon Valley and will be sharing some incredible insights live from Silicon Valley.
Date: 30 November, 7:00pm to 11:00pm
Location: TRIPLEOKLAW Advocates LLP, 5th Floor, Block C, ACK Garden House, 1st Ngong’ Avenue, off Bishops Road, PO Box 43170-00100, Nairobi
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email.
Feature image: Kyle Witting via Flickr.
