Looking to get into the South African startup scene or catch 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
For those working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one hour coffee meetup that runs a mashup of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.
Date: 13 September, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Discussion on bitcoin scaling, price, ICOs and the importance of blockchain
Looking at the surge of bitcoin price over the last few months, do you ever wonder whether bitcoin is a bubble or not? Join this discussion on the recent developments in bitcoin scaling, initial coin offering and its impact on traditional fundraising and the importance of blockchain technology.
Date: 14 September, 5pm to 7pm
Location: 3rd Floor, Bandwidth Barn, Woodstock Exchange, 66-68 Albert Road, Cape Town
Future Females: The entrepreneur mindset
As a female entrepreneur, your mindset can be your biggest barrier and your biggest advantage – elevating your thoughts, and learning to be focused and fearless is key to making things happen for yourself. Join Pride Maunatlala head of marketing at TFG Foschini Division and Lauren Wallet founder of aggregator and marketing agency Malva talk about practical, actionable strategies to achieve and maintain your own, authentic “entrepreneur mindset”.
Date: 14 September, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: The Red and Yellow School, 95 Durham Avenue, Salt River, Cape Town
The art of the possible in the global capital markets
Join New York fintech entrepreneur and thought leader Stan Guzik as he talks about his experience of the New York fintech space, his move into primary capital markets and where he sees disruption potential.
Date: 14 September, 7pm
Location: Ipreo, 5th Floor, Grove Exchange, 9 Grove Avenue, Claremont, Cape Town
Finish the week off at one of Rise Cape Town’s community events. Rise is a global community that connects startups, corporates and experts around the world to co-create the future of financial services and beyond.
Date: 15 September, 8am to 6pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange, 66 Albert Street, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Pitch your business and network with venture capitalists
Join international financier Ryan Gibson as he talks about the key components of raising capital, available methods, best practices and cheat sheets to help you succeed in raising money for your business. In attendance will be at least 10 venture capitalists.
Date: 11 September, 4.30pm to 8pm
Location: The Brazen Head Sandton Linden Pl, Strathavon Ext 25 (Anne crescent), Sandton, Johannesburg
Pathways to funding do-ference
Pulling together the Johannesburg (social) entrepreneurship ecosystem, this two-day Masterclass features speakers and entrepreneurs from across the city – focusing on the tricks and tools you’ll need to grow and fund your business.
Date: 15 and 16 September, 9am to 5pm
Location: Impact Hub Joburg, 158 Jan Smuts Building, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Kenya
With a focus on exploring and monetising the IoT revolution through bringing together ecosystem wide attendees, stakeholders and investors, Internet of Things (IoT) Africa is a unique opportunity to network and hear from well respected thought leaders and practitioners in the IoT space.
Date: 13 to 14 September, 8am to 6pm
Location: Radisson Blu Hotel, Upper Hill, Nairobi
Technology and customer experience in the financial sector
Join this panel discussion on how key players in the financial sector are working towards a seamless financial service provision to create a positive customer experience.
The panel will consist of Eddie Ndichu head digital financial services and mobile payments at KCB, Milka Kanzi director of customer experience at Tala, Alvin Mokaya head of digital marketing at DTB and Jacqueline Jumah senior analyst for digital financial services at MicroSave.
Date: 14 September, 6pm to 8pm
Location: iHub, Senteu Plaza, Galana Road, Nairobi
Nigeria
Interswitch Connect exhibition, conference and gala
Interswitch Connect brings together the entire digital financial ecosystem to discuss, debate and evaluate the future of transactions, over two days of expert keynote presentations, panel discussions, breakout workshops, case study presentations and product demos from the leading innovators and original equipment manufactures (OEMs) in the financial services industry.
Date: 14 and 15 September
Location: Nairobi Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos
Tech Cabal Office Hours : Fundraising
Join Lexi Novitske, principal investment officer at private investments company Singularity Investments, as she discusses how to raise funds for your Nigerian startup.
Date: 14 and 15 September, 4pm
Location: V8 Valley, 7B Dr S, Ezekuze Close, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos
Ventures Platform Acceleration Demo Day 2
Looking to invest in Nigerian startups? Ventures Platform, a seed-stage fund and accelerator, is holding a demo day this week
Date: 15 September, 10am
Location: Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, Palms Mall, Lagos
Featured image: Make it Kenya via Flickr (Public Domain Mark 1.0, resized)
