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
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: 18 April, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Meet the winners of the BPI Digital Africa Challenge
Watch the winning pitches of the top three selected startups in the BPI Digital Africa Startup Challenge at this La French Tech event.
Date: 19 April, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
Future Females: Getting started, turning your idea into a business
Join two expert startup founders as they share their stories, their successes and failures, what worked, what they would tell their younger selves, what is important and what you don’t need to sweat about as a founder.
Date: 18 April, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
Rising Tides with Benji Meltzer (Aerobotics)
Join Aerobotics co-founder and CTO Benji Meltzer as he shares his entrepreneurial journey and gives advice by sharing a few of the startup’s challenges and successes.
Date: 20 April, 9am to 11am
Location: Rise Cape Town, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange building, Block B, 5th Floor, Cape Town
Durban
StartupGrind Durban: The future of entrepreneurship in Durban
What is the future of the Durban Entrepreneurial Ecosystem? How do we create a culture of people involved in tech startups and entrepreneurs? How do we get more Durbanites starting startups?
Join a panel discussion featuring One Africa Media and Private Property founder Justin Clarke, SweepSouth co-founder Aisha Pandor, iKhokha co-founder Ramsay Daly and FinFind founder and CEO Darlene Menzies as they discuss Durban’s place in South Africa’s tech ecosystem.
Date: 18 April, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Pavillion Hotel Durban, 15 Old Ford Road (KE Masinga), Durban, 4001
Startupbootcamp Cape Town Durban 2018
The Startupbootcamp Cape Town team will be holding a FastTrack day in Durban this week. The 10 most promising startups selected from the applications will be invited to present their innovative ideas virtually to the Startupbootcamp team, and fellow entrepreneurs.
Attendees will have the opportunity to receive mentor feedback and learn more about the Cape Town-based Startupbootcamp accelerator programme.
Date: 19 April, 8.30am to 5pm
Location: To be announced
Johannesburg
African Women in Fintech and Payments networking breakfast
Candice Booysen runs a non-governmental organisation called Releasing Eagles which provides mentorship and financial support to South African girls in disadvantaged communities.
Booysen will be talking at this week’s African Women in Fintech and Payments (AFWP) networking breakfast where she will talk about mentorship and unleashing the potential of African women.
Date: 18 April, 8am to 9am
Location: Summer Place, 69 Melville Road, Johannesburg
Simodisa policy dialogue: Section 12J Tax Incentive
Join Kalon Venture Partners CEO Clive Butkow, Knife Capital co-founder Keet Van Zyl, Jaltech head of strategy Jonty Sacks and Savca’s Shelley Lotz as they discuss Section 12J tax incentives for venture capitalists (VCs),its impact on entrepreneurs, VCs, funders, as well as the challenges and opportunities around the policy.
Date: 19 April, 5.30pm to 8pm
Location: OPEN Sandton, 138 West Street, Sandton, Gauteng 2196 South Africa
Fashion Tech Africa Conference 2018
Fashion Tech Africa is the meeting point between technology and fashion. The conference serves as a platform to connect Africa’s leading fashion brands and industry professionals with emerging technologies and introducing new and exciting startups to the discussion.
Date: 18 April, 11am to 6pm
Location: Mesh Club, 2nd Floor Trumpet On Keyes, 21 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Info Session: The Business Activator Programme
Thinking of starting a business? Then you’ll want to attend the Business Activator Programme information session this week to find out how they can help you make a good start to your business.
Date: 21 April, 9am to 10am
Location: Rutega Learning Business Hub, 5 Rente Street, Shop A4, Johannesburg
Algeria
Techstars Startup Weekend Tipaza
Techstars Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.
Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Techstars Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations.
Date: 19 April to 21 April, 7.30pm to 10pm
Location: Tipaza Province, Algeria
Kenya
After Office Hours with Diana Opoti
After Office Hours is a monthly event where members of Nairobi Garage and innovators from around Nairobi, learn from and engage with speakers who have excelled in their respective fields.
Join Diana Opoti of Artmeis Media and Designing Africa Collective as she share her journey and how she achieved success as an entrepreneur by using creativity at the heart of her business.
Date: 19 April, 9am to 10am
Location: Pinetree Plaza, Kaburu Drive, 7th Floor, Nairobi
Morocco
The Tech Camp caravan is an innovation competition where participant are assigned a problem and are given five hours to come up with a solution which they can present before a panel of experts.
Date: 18 April, 9am to 4pm
Location: National School of Applied Sciences of Al Hoceima, Ait Youssef Ou Ali Center, Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima 32003, Morocco
Nigeria
Innovation Justice Challenge information session
Join the HiiL Justice Accelerator team this week as talk about opportunities HiiL’s Innovation Justice Challenge has to offer as well as tips on how you can apply for this year’s edition.
Date: 16 April, 10am to 10.30am
Location: Ventures Park, 29 Mambilla Street, Aso Drive, Abuja
Seso Global, the Canadian High Commission of Nigeria, Consensys, UPort, PlotPeer and Gidi VC have partnered to host a blockchain hackathon aimed at building and identifying solutions that the Canadian government can look into piloting.
Date: 21 April, 9am to 6pm
Location: Workstation, 7 Ibiyinka Olorunbe,Lagos, Nigeria
Startup Grind Abuja hosts Aderogba Otunla
Join Google Business Group Abuja head Aderogba Otunla as he chats about the secrets behind business strategies.
Date: 21 April, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Ecwa Wuse 2, 36, Blantyre crescent, Wuse 2
Ventures Platform Foundation Ecosystem Dialogue Series
Ecosystem dialogue series are bi-monthly discussions between the government and startup ecosystem representatives around challenges, solutions, feedback and how startups can help simplify government processes.
Date: 16 April, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Workstation, 7 Ibiyinka Olorunbe, Lagos, Nigeria
Most investors only have five minutes to listen to your idea, which is why you should attend the Pitch School. Learn how to make your five minutes count.
Date: 20 April, 9am to 4pm
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Tunisia
Techstars Startup Weekend Tunis 2.0
Techstars Startup Weekends are a 54-hour immersion programmes designed to allow innovators to get together to share ideas, build teams with diverse or even complementary profiles and start a startup.
Date: 20 April, 2pm to 7pm
Location: Factory 619, Rue 8612 Impasse Number 5, Charguia 1, Amen Bank Building, 2nd Floor, Block 2, Tunis 2035, Tunis
Startup Haus will this week launch a new programme aimed at the global promotion and sustainable development of entrepreneurship among young actors, both at national and regional level.
Join this event to find out more information about how the programme will work and how you can get involved.
Date: 19 April, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Startup Haus Tunis, Avenue Jean Jaurès, Tunis, Tunis
