The main challenge entrepreneurs are facing in Africa is not the lack of great ideas but the fear of turning ideas into reality. With unemployment in South Africa at an all time high, more and more people are trying to make their own way in the economy.The Africa Digital Entrepreneurship events are about turning dreams into action. The series of events aims to enable digital entrepreneurship and the upcoming ‘Bitcoin Nights’ meet-up in Johannesburg on Thursday, 24 October at The Business Exchange Morningside, 150 Rivonia Road is a must-attend event for anyone interested in the digital assets space.

Business networking is the fast track to success and event sponsors such as Zcoin and OVEX believe that entrepreneurship is the way forward for South Africans. Jonathan Ovadia, Co-Founder and CEO at OVEX, a company helping to create an open, trustless and more efficient financial system says “the vision is to break down the barriers that prevent people from entering the traditional financial system. We believe that wealth-creating investment opportunities shouldn’t only be accessible to the wealthy, but should be available to all.”

The event is facilitated by the United Africa Blockchain Association (UABA), a non-profit leading blockchain education and adoption in sub-Saharan Africa. With the help of sponsors, The Africa Digital Entrepreneurship Series’ goal is to provide relevant content on business and technology that helps people learn and grow professionally and personally.The meet-ups provide a conducive environment for networking and ideas exchange, and attendees can look forward to free drinks, giveaways and prizes. Other sponsors include Divi, which makes it possible for anyone to participate in securing blockchains through their one-click masternodes, challenging the notion that you need technical expertise to participate in the blockchain ecosystem. Centbee, a digital wallet company that believes in the power of people to create an abundant future and æternity, a new blockchain technology, designed to deliver efficiency, transparent governance and global scalability are also part of the sponsors who see huge potential in Africa and are actively championing the digital asset revolution.

The theme of the Johannesburg event focuses on the Digital Asset Economy and anyone interested in tech is welcome to attend FREE of charge and benefit from the networking opportunity and inspiring discussions. Speakers will include Adi Kaimowitz, President and CEO of Virtual Actuary, Maushami Chetty of Novate Legal; Mpho Dagada – Commisioner, 4th Industrial Revolution at the SA Presidency; and Yaliwe Soko, Chairperson at UABA.The event aims to inspire participants to increase their appetite for entrepreneurship and get more knowledgeable about the growing trend in digital assets. Africa is a market ready to adopt new technology but lack of emphasis on digital entrepreneurship opportunities in Africa might result in missed economic opportunities for the next generation.

“It’s important to encourage the youth to explore the option of entrepreneurship as a career path instead of waiting for employment opportunities which may never be available to them.Initiatives such as the Africa Digital Entrepreneurship Series focus on creating awareness and demystifying what it means to run a digital enterprise,” said Heath Muchena, Founder of Proudly Associated, a company working with companies developing blockchain-powered technologies that have use cases focusing on emerging economy development to gain adoption across the continent.Whether you’re a student, professional or fledgling entrepreneur, this event will provide valuable insights and an opportunity to learn, grow, network and be inspired all in one. The meet-up will be a relaxed, no-suits-or-ties sort of event so expect to learn and be entertained. 

"The Africa Digital Entrepreneurship Series connects up-and-coming entrepreneurs in all fields. It’s a fantastic way for those interested in tech and online businesses to build a solid support network,” said Grey Jabesi, host of the Grey Ave Podcast, Africa’s top rated podcast which focuses on survival skills for the 21st century.

By attending this FREE event, attendees will:

Learn about new frontiers in digital innovation

Find out how to leverage technology to broaden participation in the global digital economy

Boost digital asset knowledge including digital asset acquisition and management

Learn how to build a fully remote businessDiscover mentorship opportunities

Interact with other entrepreneurs and build business networks

Meet like-minded innovators and go-getters

Be empowered!

GET TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/africa-digital-entrepreneurship-series-tickets-77802321839

Event details: 

Admission: FREE (Limited space so make sure you get there early.)

Date: Thursday, 24 October, 2019

Location:  The Business Exchange, Block 4, 150 Rivonia Road, Morningside, Sandton, 2057 Johannesburg.

If you want to sponsor this event or for more information, contact:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Gauteng based digital marketing agency Stilt Media are making waves as one of the few completely black women owned and led agencies in the current South African marketing and advertising landscape. The agency is already disrupting the typical client/agency relationship by using technology and data to add real value and return on investment to clients’ bottom lines. 

Founded in 2015, Stilt Media headed up by Marketing Director Mimi Mphaphuli and Managing Director Tina Manyanya. Both women come from impressive leadership and management backgrounds, with Manyanya having headed up her own department at Publicis Media and Mphaphuli having lead a department at Ogilvy.

The pair decided to start up Stilt Media after noticing a gap in the current digital marketing environment in terms of service and delivery. They aim to use their unique backgrounds to create better processes and build better strategies to boost clients from an operational and business development point of view.
So what makes Stilt Media different?

“To start with, we believe in the power of technology and data and how it can be used to add measurable value,” says Manyanya. “We’re used to seeing the scenario where a client comes to an agency with a bunch of cash and tells them to run a campaign without having an understanding of what they agency is going to do and why. We want to use the data, analytics and tools at our disposal to demystify what we do, so clients can see that everything we recommend is from a strategic point of view. We don’t want to waste the client’s money.”

“So many South African agencies just take their client’s funding and rely on automated tools to do the heavy lifting for their social media and search campaigns,” adds Mphaphuli. “We’d rather dig deep into the data, so we can understand how to constantly better optimise our campaigns.”
“We’re very interested in where technology is going and in investing in tools that can help make things easier and more affordable for our clients. Whether it’s more efficient reporting tools or more efficient programmatic processes, we’re always looking at ways to get more insights without cutting corners.”
The pair acknowledge that the current advertising industry has a reputation for a lack of transparency, and hope to build trust through becoming strategic partners to their clients – and not just another agency. 

“We understand that the industry has for a very long time operated without transparency and clients have been kept from seeing where their money is going and how it’s being spent. What we are doing is telling them what the work we’re doing will do to their bottom line,” says Manyanya.
“We are interested in being strategic partners and taking things beyond a typical client agency relationship. We’re asking ourselves, ‘how can we assist you and partner with you to help your business grow holistically?’”
Stilt Media also believes in fostering the next generation of black, female digital marketing leaders, and have created a paid internship program to facilitate this.

“Having both grown up in agency environments, we understand what the typical internship can be like,” says Mphaphuli. “We don’t just want to give them meaningless jobs to do. We want them to understand the thinking behind what we do and take ownership of it. We want to encourage a spirit of entrepreneurship.”
Stilt Media is currently taking on clients across verticals, and already has partnered with several major South African agencies as well as clients in the technology, automotive, financial and entertainment sectors.

To get in touch with the company, contact 011 463 5767

SovTech Services, a premium Digital Services Procurement Platform, has recently rolled out a host of integration packages aimed at the South African market.

The packages, aimed at assisting companies in their quest to integrate their legacy systems with more modern cloud services they may utilize, are available online immediately in an easy to understand format that is common with the Services Platform.

Figure 1: Some of the many integration packages available.

“Many of our clients are eager to test drive market-leaders in the field of CRM software, Document management software, Accounting software, and the like, but are just not willing to take that leap of faith and leave their old systems behind. We help transition from old to new, allowing them to use both of them side by side, with integration made possible in both directions.” Says Jamie Chennells, SovTech’s CTO and head of SovTech Services.

“Integration doesn’t have to be complicated! Databases that aren’t allowed to talk to other databases lead to a loss of software potential. We help release that potential by letting them talk to each other.” The team at SovTech Services is confident that their integration area is applicable to about 90% of companies on their site, and has said that even if your software isn’t listed yet, they welcome you to submit a custom request in order for them to make the opportunity to use their Services Platform available not only to you, but to all other companies moving forward.

The introduction of the Services Platform in August 2016 complements SovTech’s vision to uplift social and economic value on a pan-African scale, through helping businesses achieve their goals using software.

Digital Services are available 24/7 and the company aims to deliver all services within 7 days of purchase. The entire SovTech website, including the Services Platform, features Live Chat, where you can get free advice on any software decisions you are thinking of making.  

SovTech, a software development company and startup incubator based in Johannesburg, has launched a new branch to their business, SovTech Services, aimed at simplifying the procurement of digital services by companies in Africa.

The SovTech Services platform offers a diverse range of premium tech services that can be conveniently purchased online. “The Services platform has everything you need to propel your business into the stratosphere, and at a price that’s probably better than what’s out there in the market.” Says Jamie Chennells, SovTech’s CTO and head of SovTech Services. The main areas of focus of the services offered include Web & Mobile, IT & Business, Digital Marketing and UX/UI Design.The SovTech Services platform is a first in South Africa, as there are no other platforms locally that offer such a diverse range of digital services that can be immediately purchased online, with a predetermined pipeline to success that can be deployed in a matter of hours. “In the past 4 years through dealing with a wide variety of clients we’ve been able to streamline a set of digital products that every company needs.” says Chennells. The platform also allows the entire process, from consultation and purchase to final delivery of the digital service to take place within its walls.

This has obvious advantages over email in that there is a centralised communication stream for document transfer and objective management to take place, in which multiple parties from each side can engage. SovTech has partnered with different businesses with whom they’ve worked with extensively in the past to fulfill key and specialist roles. They don’t mark prices up in any way, and work with their clients as if they were on their clients’ teams. “We’re doing our best to remove the fear of purchasing these sorts of products via free online consultations across the spectrum of products,and we’re cherry picking the best providers to partner with along the way. Forus, the joy is in being able to work with our clients’ other service providers andknow that things are being done properly.” says Chennells.

SovTech’s goals areto have the top 10 providers of each Digital Service on their platform, and letthe client-focused review system help new users decide on who they would like their next digital project to be completed by.The team behind the platform has a number of helpful features on the horizon,the most notable of which is a chatbot aimed at empowering business ownersand people in key positions with the right knowledge on which they can actand perform their jobs more successfully. Through communication with thechatbot, users should be able to understand where they can best direct theirfocus in order to improve their competitiveness in the market. SovTech’s CEO, Gerald Neves, reveals the reason SovTech decided to launch the new platform, “More often than not we deal with clients that have burnttheir fingers through engagements with sub-par digital service providers. Our Services Platform aims to reduce the number of such instances, in a simple but effective manner, and raise the standard of digital service consumption in South Africa on a broad scale.”SovTech believes that technology will revolutionise businesses in Africa across every industry.

The introduction of the Services Platform complements SovTech’s vision to uplift social and economic value on a pan-African scale,through helping businesses achieve their goals using software.