Looking to get into the South African startup scene or brush up on some of your skills? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
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
Solution Space Venture Incubation Programme info session
All digital startups interested in learning more about the Solution Space’s Venture Incubation Programme (VIP) Summer School 2018 are encouraged to attend this event.
Find out what the Solution Space is looking for in founders, what startups gain from the programme, how to apply to VIP, and what the selection process entails.
Date: 26 February, 4.30pm to 5.30pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Solution Space, 9 Portswood Road, Cape Town
Investment 101 with Alex Fraser
Alexandra Fraser — the former Silicon Cape chair, management consultant, African Business Angel Network founding member and South African Business Angel Network advisor and entrepreneur — will conduct this master class on fundraising.
Join Fraser as she discusses the different stages of funding, including how to become investor ready, best practice when interacting with investors and funding to consider for your startup.
Date: 27 February, 1pm to 3pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Heavy Chef: What the hell is up with bitcoin?
Heavy Chef is taking a deep dive into the world of bitcoin, with one of the most vocal commentators on cryptocurrency in the country. Heavy Chef has invited Simon Dingle, the CEO of Inves, to unpack the meaning behind the dips and dives, the confusion and the elation behind the most talked about investment of our age – is bitcoin today’s Tencent, or tomorrow’s tulip?
Date: 27 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
For those working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one-hour coffee meetup that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.
Unlike other startup meetups, lean (startup) coffee has no set agenda or a line-up of speakers, instead, the talks are centred around what you care about.
Date: 28 February, 8.30am to 9.30pm
Location: 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
This February, Silicon Cape’s SCTalks focus on key players who are taking on Cape Town’s water crisis.
Join the event to learn from, engage with and celebrate the entrepreneurs who are creating services, products and designs that will carry Cape Town through the crisis.
Date: 1 March, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
DisruptHR is an idea forum designed to inform and empower executives, business leaders, people in the human resources field and anyone passionate about talent.
Speakers at this event include Wealth Migrate CTO Gavin Rossouw, LeftFieldLab founder and director Ulrich Meyer-Höllings as well as Culture Catalyst founder Jenna Hartley.
Date: 1 March, 6.30pm to 9.15pm
Location: Travelstart South Africa, 4 Darters Road, Gardens, Cape Town
Legal mistakes can doom even the best start-up projects and founding teams. In this legal learning chat, you will learn about essential legal issues that startups face, including company formation, how to formalise founder relationships, funding basics and protecting intellectual property.
Date: 2 March, 6.30pm to 9.15pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Bloemfontein
Startup Grind Bloemfontein hosts Jaclyn Engelbrecht (Nov-U)
For their first event of the year, Startup Grind Bloemfontein hosts Jaclyn Engelbrecht the owner of beauty product distribution company Nov-U.
In less than four years, Engelbrecht’s says her company has grown by 400%. Join this session to learn more about her journey as an entrepreneur in the beauty industry.
Date: 28 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Mazars, 46 1st Ave, Westdene, Bloemfontein
Durban
Startup Grind Durban hosts Adewale Adejumo (Zasttra.com)
Join Adewake Adejumo, the CEO and founder of online retail store Zasstra, as he shares how he founded the company and more importantly how he’s managed to lead the businesses to become one of the fastest growing ecommerce sites in South Africa.
Date: 28 February, 6.15pm to 9pm
Location: Pavillion Hotel Durban, 15 Old Ford Road (KE Masinga), Durban
Johannesburg
Solution Space Venture Incubation Programme info session
All digital startups interested in learning more about the Solution Space’s Venture Incubation Programme (VIP) Summer School 2018 are encouraged to attend this event.
Find out what the Solution Space is looking for in founders, what startups gain from the programme, how to apply to VIP, and what the selection process entails.
Date: 27 February, 4.30pm to 6pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business – Johannesburg, 61 Katherine Street, Sandton
Startup Grind Johannesburg hosts Shakes Motsilili (Aziza Coin, Africa New Energies)
Startup Grind Johannesburg hosts Aziza Coin and Africa New Energies co-founder Shakes Motsilili. Join the event to learn more about his entrepreneurial journey, his passions for crowdfunding and how his company aims to fund socially responsible tech startups.
Date: 27 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Perch Co-Working Office Space, 37 Bath Ave, Rosebank
Ethereum meetup: Understanding ICOs
Want to know more about initial coin offerings (ICOs), how they work, how to invest in them and the legal implications of running one? Then you will want to join this PwC and Linumlabs Ethereum meetup.
Date: 28 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: PwC Waterfall, Waterfall City, 4 Lisbon Lane, Jukskei View, Midrand
Heavy Chef: What the hell is up with bitcoin?
Heavy Chef is taking a deep dive into the world of bitcoin, with one of the most vocal commentators on cryptocurrency in the country. Heavy Chef has invited Simon Dingle, the CEO of Inves, to unpack the meaning behind the dips and dives, the confusion and the elation behind the most talked about investment of our age – is bitcoin today’s Tencent, or tomorrow’s tulip?
Date: 27 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: TBD
Cameroon
Start’In Pot is a monthly pitch event, organised by ActivSpaces Douala, which aims to financially support entrepreneurs or startups. Each month six startups are selected to pitch their ideas.
Date: 28 February, 6pm to 8pm
Location: ActivSpaces, Boulevard of Liberty, Akwa, Douala
Ghana
Become a globally successful tech entrepreneur
Do you aspire to build your own pan-African tech company? Do you want to learn more about how you can join one of the biggest startup communities on the continent? Join the MEST Africa team as they share their experience working with entrepreneurs from across the continent.
Date: 3 March, 11am to 12.30pm
Location: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology, 20 Aluguntugui Street, Accra,
Kenya
The GSBI Investor Showcase is an opportunity for the founders for-profit, non-profit, and hybrid social enterprises to demonstrate the investment readiness of their ventures.
After the presentations, participants will have an opportunity to meet with the social entrepreneurs at a reception or schedule one one one meetings with them.
Date: 1 March, 11.15am to 1pm
Location: Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi
Nigeria
Join investor and entrepreneur Tom Davies, and V8 Ventures partner Tobi Oke in this workshop on termsheets.
Date: 27 February, 2pm to 6pm
Location:V8 Valley – Workspace, 7b Dr. S. Ezekuse Close, Lagos
Startup consulting and financial advisory company Venzium Capital will this week host a business training programme aimed at startup founders. Topics to be covered include business models, lean startup concepts, branding, team building, finance
Date: 28 February, 9am to 4pm
Location: 1 Akilo Road, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
Angel Investor Masterclass Abuja
Part of a series of capacity building events aimed at mobilising the early stage investment community on the continent, this master class will aim to connect the capital and knowledge needed to maximise Africa’s entrepreneurial potential.
Join long-time investor and entrepreneur Tomi Davies as he shares insights on best practices for aspiring angel investors.
Date: 28 February, 2pm to 6pm
Location: 1 Ventures Park, 29 Mambilla Street, off Aso Drive, Maitama, Abuja
Fireside chat with Startupbootcamp’s Zachariah George and Liquid Telecom’s Ben Roberts
If you’re in Nairobi, you’ll want to attend this fireside chat featuring Startupbootcamp Cape Town MD and co-founder Zachariah George and Liquid Telecom CTIO Ben Roberts on the big data, analytics and ecommerce space and opportunities in Africa.
Date: 28 February, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Nairobi Garage, Chiromo Road, Nairobi
Zambia
Starting your business: Stories from very young entrepreneurs
Learn a thing or two from some of Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs.
Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with them and ask them questions about the challenges they have faced and how they have overcome them to be successful.
Date: 28 February, 5pm to 8pm
Location: TBD
Featured image: Adria Richards via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
