Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [24/2/2019]

One of this week’s top events to look out for is arguably Wednesday’s (27 February) workshop in Cape Town on business acceleration and access to funding where organisers claim R1.2-million in funding will be given away.

For those in Johannesburg, StartUp Grind Soweto will on Thursday (28 February) host a fireside chat with Tumisang Kgaboesele who will talk about launching a business using just what you have and making it work against all odds.

Elsewhere on the continent, those in Namibia can join Raw @Cramers in Windhoek on Thursday (28 February) to explore funding options available for Namibian startups. For those in Ghana, watch out for the financial intelligence workshop in Accra on Saturday (2 March).

This article is part of a weekly series that highlights all the top startup events, competitions, networking sessions, workshops and conferences in Africa.

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.

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.

Bloemfontein

Firesidechat with Danie Jacobs

Startup Grind Bloemfontein hosts Young Entrepreneurs founder and CEO Danie Jacobs whose company teaches children and young adults vital entrepreneurial, and workplace readiness skills and help them start and grow their own micro-enterprises in a fun and experiential way.

Date: 28 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: TBC, UFS Campus, Bloemfontein

Cape Town

Lean Startup Coffee

For those that work in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one-hour coffee meetup that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.  

Date: 27 February, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town

Blockchain in Cape Town: Creating Shared Value

The aim of this event is to highlight the intersection between business, the blockchain and innovation, opening up a conversation around these three industry spheres and how they create shared value.

Date: 27 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Woodstock Exchange, 66 – 68 Albert Road, Cape Town

Accelerate your business and access funding (Workshop)

This free event — which is sponsored by McDonalds, Standard Bank, Business Partners and Waymaker VC — will see participants receive valuable tips and advice, solutions, as well as training on how to access funding and support from corporates, local and national government.

The event is open to entrepreneurs with businesses that have been operating for at least two years. It will be facilitated by some of the top business development specialists in the country and will include valuable contributions from our strategic corporate partners. In addition R1.2-million will also be given away at the event.

Date: 27 February, 8.30am to 12.30pm
Location: University Of The Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville (In the Sports Hall), Cape Town

Heavy Chef: Michèle Ngueyep’s Facebook For Business (Free masterclass)

Heavy Chef hosts another senior member of Facebook’s team, Michèle Ngueyep, for an exclusive masterclass.

Answering the call for more practical learning, Ngueyep will show us how to get started targeting your ideal customers, setting up your campaigns, constructing effective messages and converting your audience into paying customers.

Date: 27 February, 9am to 1pm
Location: Workshop17, 17 Dock Road Cape Town

Savca Southern Africa Industry Conference

The theme for the SAVCA 2019 conference is “Rise to a new level”. The conference will explore and showcase how, despite a tough and ever-changing economic landscape, the industry continues to rise.

Date: 27 February, 9am to 1pm
Location: Spier Wine Farm, R310 Baden Powell Drive, Stellenbosch,

The State of Entrepreneurship in South Africa

Discussions at this event will seek to present an overview of the entrepreneurship community and assess what gaps exist in terms providing extensive and relevant support to aspirant and existing SA entrepreneurs.

Date: 28 February, 3.30pm to 6pm
Location: Allan Gray, 1 Silo Square, V & A Waterfront,Cape Town

Durban

Dlamini Nosihle & Khumalo Phumelele

Get2Natural founders Dlamini Nosihle and Khumalo Phumelele have won several awards and prizes, including second runner up at the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme and best upcoming entrepreneurs by Business Support. Join the duo at this Startup Grind Durban event.

Date: 1 March, 12pm to 3pm
Location: Durban University of Technology, DB0001, 7 Ritson Rd, Overport, Durban

Johannesburg

Cyber Crisis Response

A Cyber crisis such as a data breach can seriously harm a company’s reputation and competitiveness.This workshop teaches what to do before one happens and what to do if a crisis such as a breach should happen.

Date: 26 February, 8.30am to 4.30pm
Location: Hotel Apollo Conferencing Centre, 158 Bram Fischer Drive, Ferndale, Johannesburg

Allon Raiz: The Startup path

The year is is off to a flying start and Startup Grind Johannesburg is excited to invite you to join us for a forward-looking fireside chat with Raizcorp CEO Allon Raiz.

Expect everything and nothing short as Raiz shares his views on what may be in store and what to look out for as an entrepreneur in 2019.

Date: 26 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Impello Incubation Hub, 139 Greenway Avenue, Greenside, Randburg

Startup Grind Centurion hosts Theo Baloyi

Startup Grind Centurion hosts Bathu Shoes founder Theo Baloyi. Get to know the man who’s breathable, colourful shoes are getting every South African walking their own journey.

Date: 26 February, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Industrial Coffee Works, Cnr. Heuwels and Hendrik Verwoerd, Centurion

Startup Grind Soweto hosts Tumisang Kgaboesele

StartUp Grind Soweto will host a fireside chat with Tumisang Kgaboesele who will talk about launching a business, using what’s at your disposal and making it work against all odds.

Date: 28 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Baza Baza RoadHouse, 1428 Mofokokeng Street, Orlando East cnr Mofokeng & Sofasonke, Soweto

I’M IN Business

I’M IN Business is a pilot for the Masterclass series of events brought to you by I’M IN Accelerator.

The aim of this series is to provide tech startups access to first row information from successful entrepreneurs.

Date: 1 March, 3.30pm to 7pm
Location: Mesh Club, Johannesburg

Angola

Seminar on strategic innovation

At this seminar, LBC Managing Partner Carlos Oliveira will present the 2014 Global Strategic Innovation programme, a Silicon Valley immersion programme for executives. This programme already has a solid track record in Angola with several dozen participants in previous editions.

Date: 27 February, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Skyna Hotel, Avenida de Portugal, Luanda

Benin

Benin Digital Awards

Join Benin’s biggest annual digital awards competition.

Date: 2 March, 7pm to 12pm
Location: Azalai Beach Hotel, Ganhi-Cotonou, Cotonou

Egypt

Blockchain: What is it, potential application beyond cryptocurrencies

This event, which will feature IBM Egypt’s Amr Eid, will provide an introduction to blockchain technology for individuals without a technical background.

Date: 26 February, 12pm to 1.30pm
Location: TIEC Smart-Village, Building (B5),6th October City, Giza governorate

Ghana

Getting your business investor ready

This information session covers the different financing options for business or startups and an indepth discussion on how to get your business ready for investors.

Date: 28 February, 1pm to 2pm
Location: The Finlite Institute, 16 Noi Fetreke Street, Airport Residential Area, Accra

Financial Intelligence for Successful Entrepreneurs

This event will help you learn all the financial intelligence you’ll need to become a successful entrepreneur. Topics to be covered include practical ways of safeguarding your capital, how to interpret your financial data, and controlling your business expenses before it’s too late.

Date: 2 March, 9.30am to 12.30pm
Location: The Orangery, Opposite Impact Hub, 169/4A, Otswe Street, Osu, Accra

Morocco

Startup Grind Mohammedia AfterWork with Hamza Ahmamou

Startup Grind Mohammedia AfterWork events are a platform to meet, exchange and draw inspiration from other entrepreneurs. This week’s guest is HZ Group’s Hamza Ahamamou.

Date: 28 February, 7pm to 9pm
Location: Sirene Bleu Bd la Corniche Mohammedia

Namibia

Raw @Cramers: Funding options for startups in the Namibian context

What are some of the funding options for startups in Namibia? This time around at RAW we will be discussing what some of these options are in the Namibian context.

Date: 28 February, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Cramer Ice Cream, Independence Avenue,Windhoek

Nigeria

18th CFA’s Startups Hangout: From Start-up to Scale-up

Each session enables startups connect with successful entrepreneurs and top executives who have garnered tons of experiences that money simply can’t buy. The 18th CFA’s Startups Hangout will focus on how to go from Startup to Scale up, the whole 9 yards.

Date: 27 February, 5pm to 8pm
Location: GoDo.ng!,53 Oladipo Bateye Road, Ikeja

WennoChat February Edition: Lagos

WennoChat is a monthly engagement platform that brings together entrepreneurs, business executives, developers and other stakeholders to learn, network, share key issues affecting tech innovation in Nigeria. This month’s topic is “Launch, Relaunch and Earn With Social Media”.

Date: 27 February, 10am to 12pm
Location: Wennovation Hub, Lagos, No 12 Rev Ogunbiyi Street GRA, Ikeja, Lagos

Promoting commercial viability of tech startups

Do startups require legal services? What are the advantages of getting access to legal services at this stage? Do you want answers to these questions? Then join us.

Date: 28 February, 11am to 1pm
Location: Co-Creation Hub Nigeria, 6th Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos

WennoChat February Edition: Ibadan

WennoChat is a monthly engagement platform that brings together entrepreneurs, business executives, developers and other stakeholders to learn, network, share key issues affecting tech innovation in Nigeria. This month’s focus is on applying for business funding.

Date: 28 February, 3pm to 5pm
Location: Wennovation Hub, 3rd Floor Alpha and Omega Building, Queen Elizabeth II Road, Mokola, Ibadan

Aiivon Startup Forum

This event will equip startup entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge and skills they need to craft unique narratives for their businesses which will result to increased visibility, favourable public appeal perception and higher sales margin.

Date: 1 March, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Aiivon Innovation Hub – St. James House, 167 Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Abuja

Kenya

Early stage investment for SMEs

Ikigai Nairobi will host Mahia-John Mahiaini of Twiga Foods, Ariane Fisher of Shortlist, Brooks Washington of Roha Africa, Niraj Varia of Novastar Ventures and Lauren Cochran of Blue Haven Initiative.

Join the event for a deep-dive conversation exploring each company, their recent work, funding rounds, some of the unwritten rules of raising capital and get advice on early-stage investing for your business.

Date: 26 February, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Ikigai Nairobi (Westlands), Nairobi

Equity basics: Understanding capitalisation tables and employee equity

This is the first in a series of three workshops iHub and Raise will hold for founders, investors and law firms to understand how to prepare to raise capital, structure capitalisation tables and how to use digital shares and blockchain to ease the fundraising process.

Date: 27 February, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: iHub, Nairobi

Thursday’s Tech’spresso

The Thursday Tech’spresso is a free breakfast briefing series regularly hosted by Dimension Data East Africa. It brings together technology experts and peers across the industry to deep-dive into the latest and most pertinent technology, trends and their relevance to your business.

Date: 28 February, 8am to 10am
Location: Cisco Executive Briefing & Experience Center – 7th Floor,Landmark Plaza, Argwings Kodhek Road, Nairobi

Founders Live

Five handpicked companies will take the hot seat, with only 99 seconds to pitch their company and describe their value proposition in front of an eager audience. 

Date: 28 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Nairobi Garage, Pinetree Plaza, Ngong Rd, Nairobi

After Office Hours with Lizz Ntonjira

Join Nairobi Garage as it hosts Amref Corporate Communications lead Elizabeth (Lizz) Ntonjira as she shares her story on her foray into media and her career journey, as well as the challenges she’s faced being a woman in leadership.

She will also share leadership tips and how businesses can execute great strategies that can position themselves as thought leaders in their areas of expertise.

Date: 28 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Nairobi Garage Karen, Watermark Business Park Ndege Road, Nairobi

Senegal

Development of the startup ecosystem in Senegal

This event will allow entrepreneurs, support structures, companies, and public organisations to have a forum for exchange on the perspectives of evolution of the startup scene in Senegal.

Date: 26 February, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Expresso Innovation Hub, Dakar

Featured image: Startup Grind Cape Town via Facebook