SA-based creatives’ recruitment offering BlueAvo was officially launched in March 2021 to help talented African creatives connect with prospective employers.
Co-founder Indira Tsengiwe described the platform to Ventureburn. “BlueAvo provides unbiased access to a pipeline of commercial opportunities to one of the biggest economic sectors on the African continent – the creative industry. The technology empowers hidden talent to be discovered at the click of a button, enabling anyone, anywhere on the continent to have access to work,” she explained.
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Tsengiwe is the first SA woman to be honoured as a runner-up for the prize
Since its inception, the startup’s platform has evolved to include software tools that help African creatives make groundbreaking content and feedback mechanisms that guide creatives to bespoke connections with employers, brands, agencies or other startups. To date, the platform has welcomed a plethora of premium creatives from over nine African countries, including Nigeria, SA, Ghana, Madagascar and Egypt.
Runner-up – The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
BlueAvo was founded in 2019 by Tsengiwe and Isaac Tshiteta and was recently honoured as a runner-up of The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation from the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. Tsengiwe is the first SA woman to be honoured as a runner-up for the prize, joining fellow women finalists Fatou Juka Darboe from Gambian startup Make3D Medical and Faith Adesemowo from Social Lender in Nigeria. Entrepreneur and chemical engineer Noël N’guessan walked away with the grand prize of £25 000 with each of the runners up receiving £10 000.
The Africa Prize finalists were selected from a shortlist of 16 African startups after working through eight months of skills training and one-on-one support on topics such as drawing up business plans, scaling a startup, hiring a team and financing and commercialising their business.
Tsengiwe shared her happiness about the prize and what it means for their company in future. “The Royal Academy of Engineering has given our solution a nod, recognising the immense potential of the solution to the local African creative economy. We intend to leverage this opportunity to gain further momentum in developing our technology and formalising – in large part – trade in the creative sector across the continent. We want to show the world the creative talent that it’s been missing out on in Africa. For us, the time is now,” she said.
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Featured image: BlueAvo co-founders Indira Tsengiwe and Isaac Tshiteta via Rodger Bosch (Supplied)
