Significant losses of funding have limited the ability of African civil society organizations (CSOs) to meet the needs of their communities at a time when COVID-19 has pushed demand for their services to unprecedented levels, according to a report released today by EPIC-Africa and @AfricanNGOs. The report, “The Impact of COVID-19 on African Civil Society Organizations: Ongoing Uncertainty and a Glimmer of Optimism”, is based on a survey of 1,039 CSOs in 46 African countries in June and July of 2021. It follows the groups’ 2020 report, which surveyed African CSOs in the early days of the pandemic.

Despite these challenges, African CSOs have taken on expanded roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 80% of the organizations surveyed introducing new program activities to respond to the social and economic needs of the most vulnerable populations. Yet, CSOs themselves have been hard hit by the pandemic and face considerable uncertainty as the global crisis deepens. Of the organizations surveyed, 68.1% experienced a loss of funding since the start of the pandemic (up from 55% in 2020) and only 8.4% received any funding support from a government emergency relief fund in their country.

This lack of funding, according to the report, has resulted in citizens being denied vital services such as educational programs for children and adolescents, life-saving medication for HIV+ people, shelter for victims of domestic violence, rape and other atrocities, and the muting of citizens’ voices in matters of social and economic justice.

“The findings of this report make it crystal clear that governments and funders must recognize, partner with and support African CSOs, whose actions are critical to driving a comprehensive response to COVID-19,” said EPIC-Africa Co-founder, Rose Maruru. “Since the onset of the pandemic, African CSOs have demonstrated great adaptive ability and creativity in meeting the needs of their communities, and this makes us optimistic that the sector can recover and build a better future.”

Too important to fail

The report notes a marked increase in demand for the services that African CSOs provide: from 31.5% in 2020 to 40.7% 2021. In response to the pandemic, 83.4% introduced new program activities, 27.6% increased their programming to deal with the impact of COVID-19, and 34.3% changed the focus of their programs to COVID-19 from other areas. As the report shows, CSOs are providing these services under strain, with 87.1% reporting increased anxiety and stress levels among staff. The situation is made worse by long-term under-resourcing and restricted civic space in many countries that pre-date the pandemic.

“COVID-19 has laid bare some of the major challenges facing African CSOs,” said David Barnard of @AfricanNGOs, and co-author of the report. “This report is an opportunity to think through the solutions that will ensure a post-pandemic future with resilient and sustainable CSOs. With millions of people depending on the vital advocacy and daily services provided by African CSOs, the sector is simply too important to fail.”

The role of funders

This new report also includes the findings of a complementary survey of funders of African CSOs, which sought to understand how the pandemic impacted their organizations and the implications for their future engagement with African CSOs. The findings show that many funders have demonstrated unprecedented flexibility, provided additional resources, and in some cases, ceded more decision-making power to their grantees. When asked to describe the lessons of COVID-19 and what funders can do to enable CSOs to recover and emerge stronger from the crisis, one funder stressed the importance of general support: “Multi-year flexible grants gave many of our partners the space to react to changing situations. This past year has highlighted the importance of investing in infrastructure; partners benefit from having additional funds to build out their infrastructure so they can remain resilient in changing environments.”

A way forward

According to the report, African CSOs acknowledged that the sector needs to be better organized, collaborate more, and build more robust networks and platforms. The report notes that COVID-19 has ignited an inflection point, and recommends that funders, governments and CSOs carry out initiatives to revitalize the sector, with support for institution-building, including strengthening infrastructure for local philanthropy. It recommends that governments include CSOs in national emergency responses and long-term development efforts, and that CSOs strive to diversify funding and explore new organizational and funding models.

Dr Bheki Moyo, Director for the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI) at the University of the Witwatersrand said: “This report gives us important data and knowledge on the impact of COVID-19 on African CSOs and on how the crisis has exacerbated some of the structural issues that existed pre-pandemic. We have a unique opportunity to think together about how to translate the recommendations from this report into action that benefits the millions of people who depend on African CSOs to weather this and future crises.”
About the report

EPIC-Africa and @AfricanNGOs conducted the survey that informed this report from 1 June to 5 July 2021, with responses from CSOs from all regions of the continent. It is one of the most comprehensive analyses of the impact of COVID-19 on CSOs anywhere in the world. Given the historical challenges facing African CSOs, and the severity of the impact of COVID-19 on the sector, the survey aimed to:

• Capture the ongoing impact of the pandemic on African CSOs, how CSOs are responding, and emerging trends and lessons that may help to predict and prepare for the future.
• Acquire information at the sectoral and regional levels to conduct pertinent cross-sector analyses and present a more granular picture of how African CSOs are coping.
• Compare the findings from the 2020 survey with the current situation, and generate data and knowledge to inform and widen the discussion on building resilience in the African CSO sector.

Building on the survey responses and feedback received from various local and international stakeholders in response to the first report, this report includes two new components:

• Cross-country and cross-sectoral comparisons to surface critical gaps and priorities among CSOs in different parts of the continent.
• Insights from a complementary "mini-survey" of funders of African CSOs on how COVID-19 has impacted them, and how that impact will affect their future engagement with African CSOs.

About EPIC-Africa
EPIC-Africa is a Senegal-based non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen philanthropic impact by filling critical data and capacity gaps in the African civil society sector. It envisages a vibrant civil society ecosystem with diverse, influential, sustainable African civil society groups at the centre. EPIC-Africa contributes to this transformative vision by gathering, analyzing and sharing sector data, as well as providing services and tools that aim to set standards and ensure continuous improvement in performance and impact, champion new approaches, and advocate for better policies to support the sector. Founded in 2017, EPIC-Africa is led by Rose Maruru, with the support of a small in-house team and consultants based in Dakar, Dar-es-Salaam, Johannesburg, Nairobi and New York. EPIC-Africa also works through a vast network of CSOs and peer organizations in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. For more information, please visit https://epic-africa.org.

About @AfricanNGOs
@AfricanNGOs is a Twitter account that covers news and information for and about NGOs in Africa. It is moderated by David Barnard, a development consultant with more than 25 years’ executive and senior management experience in leading and supporting development organizations and programs across Africa. His expertise covers fundraising, strategic communication, stakeholder management, advocacy, governance, ICT4D and philanthropy. David currently acts as a consultant to various NGOs and foundations in Africa, and serves on the Africa Policy Advisory Board of the ONE Campaign. For more information, please visit https://twitter.com/africanngos.

For media requests, interviews with the authors or further questions please contact:

Chakera McIntosh
Communications Lead, EPIC-Africa
+221 77 157 1168 (WhatsApp)
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

David Barnard
+27 82 870 8968
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Cape Town-based CloudOne Technologies Pty Ltd, trading as CloudOne.mobi, has announced that it closed two funding rounds totalling R34m at the end of 2018. The investors include Investec Private Capital, through its Emerging Companies mandate. The investment will be used to help scale out and grow the business more aggressively. CloudOne.mobi was founded in October 2014 with the mission of re-inventing the Point Of Sale (POS) experience.

Founder and CEO Dana Buys has successfully started and sold a number of software businesses since launching his first business while studying at the University of Cape Town in the early 1980s. Subsequently a hospitality business owner, among other interests, he became frustrated with poor levels of technology, particularly related to POS. Buys is passionate about customer service and wanted a solution that would improve the speed and accuracy of serving customers.

 "Speed and accuracy deliver a win-win for both business and its customers,” he says. “Happy customers spend more and spread the good news via word of mouth. Accurate orders reduce costly mistakes and improve profitability. It’s hard to beat if you can make the solution easy-to-use and affordable to own!” He continues, “There is massive opportunity to deploy affordable Cloud and mobile technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Cloud solutions model allows us to eliminate many of the headaches experienced by SME businesses which often lack strong IT skills. We develop the , keep the systems up to date, manage the databases and integration to external solutions, perform regular backups, and enforce security.” 

CloudOne.mobi has developed an advanced cloud-based Point of Sale solution called TallOrder for SME businesses across the hospitality, retail and service segments. TallOrder delivers Cloud benefits, along with robust offline capacity to deal with the relatively slow, less reliable and costlier Internet prevalent throughout emerging markets. Buys explains that similar solutions developed in the United States and Europe assume an always-on, fast and low-cost Internet which is not yet the case in Africa and other developing markets.solution

 CloudOne.mobi says TallOrder is easy to deploy, easy to learn to run, and operates on Microsoft Windows, Apple's iOS, and Android devices. It is designed for traditional point of sale stations, tablets and even smartphone-sized devices. The system supports mobile use, which boosts the speed and accuracy of customer service. "TallOrder replaces expensive upfront license and installation fees with low monthly or annual fees, based on the number of devices in use. This opens the market to many businesses which previously could not afford nor cope with the older technology" says Anna Groenewald, COO and co-founder at CloudOne.mobi.

 According to Meiring de Wet, Chief Technology Officer at CloudOne.mobi, "SME companies by themselves will never generate enough data to be as truly useful as Big Data. We have built TallOrder in a way that allows us to aggregate the small data coming from SME businesses into Big Data".    

“This investment is an important opportunity for CloudOne.mobi to expand our software developments and allow us to rapidly scale our marketing and sales efforts and increase our future partnership opportunities,” stated Groenewald. Learn more about CloudOne.mobi and their hero products TallOrder Point of Sale and PageMan Digital Signage on their website, https://cloudone.mobi/ or contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./ +27 (0) 728630116

Johannesburg, February 6, 2019 – Team Southern Africa Startup Awards today announced the formation of Setup A Startup (Pty) Ltd, a groundbreaking approach to catalyze entrepreneurship and innovation  in Africa. The Southern Africa Startup Awards which is a circuit of the Global Startup Awards will from now on be managed by Setup A Startup (Pty) Ltd.  Mckevin Ayaba, an experienced Startup Ecosystem builder, tech and innovation enthusiast who founded Southern Africa Startup Awards in 2017 and is the CEO, will lead the new organization as its CEO. Mckevin who was recently named Global Goodwill Ambassador for his humanitarian services to the community will take on his new position on Monday February 11, 2019.

BACKGROUND

The world-renowned Global Startup Awards, the largest independent startup ecosystem competition covering 57 countries in 7 regions of Europe and Asia, arrived in Africa in 2017. It launched the first regional startup awards, the Southern Africa Startup Awards in 2018 which saw over 3000 startups and ecosystem players nominated from the 15 SADC countries. It consisted of 15 categories with 14 countries taking home regional Grand Finale prizes. Three of the regional winners got investment deals to scale. The mission is to find, connect, support and celebrate key players in the national and regional startup ecosystems worldwide and to fuse them together in a global entrepreneurial network, creating a matrix of opportunities for international partnerships, investment opportunities and commercial exchange.“While the Awards were a great success, and there’s no denying that Africa has an abundance of innovative tech talent, it is apparent that the continent’s entrepreneurs lag far behind their global peers when it comes to being investment-ready,” says one of the judges and multiple award winning Female tech Entrepreneur and Founder of Obami, Barbara Mallinson.This is one of the outcomes of panel discussion on innovative platforms to fund start-ups in Africa which took place during the Awards, hosted in November 2018 in Johannesburg.Based on the feedback of the Investors who were on the panel, Leron Varsha from Kalon Venture Partners  representing Section 12J Venture Capital, Shakes Motsilili from The AZIZA Project , Marlon Green representing CABAN Investments and the startup founders themselves,  we have taken upon ourselves  ,through a new parent body, SETUP A STARTUP (SAS) in partnership with CABAN INVESTMENT LTD, to develop a whole range of services for entrepreneurs that include:  Services taking startups through to fully operational capitalised businesses; Raising capital for approved startups through our partners Seedslife Caban Impact Fund, a listed African Impact Fund; An Entrepreneurship Education Programme (EEP) that addresses a clear need amongst African founders: “How to start and grow their businesses” and be ready for investment.

SETUP A STARTUP

Setup A Startup (SAS) is a startup organization that aims to Develop, Connect, and promote startups in Africa. They facilitate entrepreneurship education, scout startups for corporates,  startup competitions, and innovation-centric media to accomplish these goals. In partnership with Caban Investment Ltd, SAS helps strengthen startups' competitiveness, grow global champions, scale, and raising capital and create opportunities for startups globally. SAS plays a key role in building a dynamic and sustainable startup ecosystem in Africa.

CABAN Investments

Caban, headed by Dave Romero, is a company born from authentic passion to enable entrepreneurs to succeed in business. A core focus is to invest in high-growth opportunities to maximise returns for shareholders, at the same time also providing a comprehensive service offering to cover all business development and professional business needs. From small start-ups to larger companies, CABAN offers the entire spectrum of business services. The CABAN team have over 100 years of combined entrepreneurship experience, have scaled 100s of companies over a 32 year period.  With offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg and London, they are able to scale startups to the European markets.

PROBLEM

Africa is increasingly taking its place on the global stage as a continent of growth and opportunity. Yet critical challenges remain, particularly the need to create a significant number of jobs for the continent’s booming population. Africa must build a cadre of home-grown business leaders able to access global markets and drive growth in a sustainable, inclusive manner. Unfortunately, the following barriers impede Africa’s entrepreneurs:

• Insufficient support services and skill-building resources;
• Lack of access to key resources, such as funding;
• Poor infrastructure and weak innovation ecosystems; 

This shared belief, our common view that each of us has a role to play in turning Africa’s challenges into opportunities, have led to Setup A Startup (SAS) and CABAN Investments undertaking to partner for startup ecosystem development across the continent with a focus on the following;

• Celebrate and connect Startups through an  Awards programme and the Entrepreneur Expo founded by CABAN;
• Helping startups to scale and internationalise through CABAN Investments and Seedlife Caban Impact Investment Fund listed on the Gilbratar Stock Exchange;
• Enable startups through our Entrepreneurship Education programme;
• Driving co-innovation between startups and enterprises;
• Building an access hub of connected ecosystems across African countries. 

“Entrepreneurs are most successful when they have access to the human, financial, and professional resources they need, and operate in an institutional environment in which norms and policies encourage and safeguard entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship flourishes in ecosystems in which multiple stakeholders play key synergistic roles, which often requires multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships” Says Mckevin Ayaba. With that being said, we will be announcing more partnerships in the subsequent days ahead that will helps achieve these goals. 

SETUP A STARTUP Pty Ltd, THE ONE STOP SHOP FOR ENTREPRENEURS! 

The Innovator Trust, an enterprise development organisation, and the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi), Africa’s oldest incubator, are calling on Cape Town-based growth-stage ICT entrepreneurs to join the intensive 2-year enterprise development programme.

The ICT sector has gone from strength to strength and is one of the fastest-growing industries on the African continent. Yet African entrepreneurs are still finding it a difficult business landscape to navigate. That is why The Innovator Trust and CiTi, through exposure, training and mentorship, now aim to equip entrepreneurs and businesses in the sector with tools that will keep them on track, assist them to achieve their goals and create tech leaders of the future.

ICT entrepreneurs in need of mentorship, skills development and business support who have been operating for more than 2 years and are fiercely committed to growing their business, can now apply to the prestigious 2-year Innovator Trust programme, co-developed and run by CiTi at the Woodstock Bandwidth Barn and remotely in Cape Town.

Applications close on 22 February and the selected candidates will be announced on 4 March. 

The Innovator Trust programme aims to support the: increase annual turnover, equip businesses with the necessary accreditation to remove red tape, as well as increase profitability and number of employees.

Get ready to move the dial on your business.

Celebrating its 20th year of supporting entrepreneurs, CiTi currently runs a number of incubation programmes from idea to growth stage. After a very successful first cohort of the programme, completed in 2018, CiTi confirmed a second collaboration with the Innovator Trust to support further Cape Town businesses over the next two years. Applicants need to be in “ICT”, but this has included a broad range of focusses in the past, from IT recruitment, network security to cabling service provider and software solutions. The programme, designed by CiTi and Innovator Trust, is not to be taken lightly. Monthly training, mentorship sessions with industry experts, and a strong focus on technical improvements means a substantial time and focus commitment by the entrepreneur. But this intensive design enables significant business progression over the two years. 

“Once the entrepreneurs who take part in our Enterprise Development programmes become more established, they turn their focus to growth. This accelerator is especially for entrepreneurs who’ve created businesses with high-growth potential and provides them with the skills to scale at speed and responsibly,” says Tashline Jooste, CEO of the Innovator Trust.

Cape Town was recently confirmed as the Tech Hub of Africa, by an Endeavor Insight Report commissioned by CiTi and partners, presenting growing opportunities for those businesses serious about growth, and with the right support.

“I believe strongly that ICT entrepreneurs are going to be critical to South Africa’s economic growth, which is why we need to focus on equipping these businesses with the skills they need to grow, create jobs and stimulate our economy,” adds Jooste.

In order to be considered for the programme, prospective applicants must meet the following criteria:

A company defined in South Africa as an SMME, QSE or EME;

Must be operational and trading for two or more years;

The business should be at least 51% black-owned;

A minimum Level 1 – 4 BBBEE status according to the DTI or ICT Codes;

The business must be a registered company with key focus in ICT and be based in Cape Town and surrounding areas.

In addition, applicants will need to supply copies of their company registration, company profile, and annual financial statements along with their BEE certificate and IDs with their applications.

“We had a fantastic experience on the Innovator Trust programme, perhaps most beneficial was the advice and mentorship on our financial management, up-skilling of our team, and establishing a 3-year budget and growth plan for the business. Our advice to entrepreneurs considering the course is “JUST DO IT!!!” The skills and knowledge you gain are invaluable and put us on a serious growth trajectory.” states Jennifer Classen, Founder of Ngaphaya Y2K10, and Participant in the 2015 – 2018 Innovator Trust programme.

Ready to grow your business? Learn more about the programme and submit your application HERE.

Eleven startups from across the African continent, identified as “entrepreneurs for humanity”, were awarded the opportunity to partner with the AfricArena challenge corporate sponsors at the end of the second AfricArena technology conference in Cape Town today.

Saturday 17 November, Cape Town – Amongst others, Air France KLM selected DiscoverIkasi and Sea Monster, both from South Africa, to assist with improving the travel experience and sustainability of its subsidiary Joon. Vinci Energie, will work with Senegal’s Oniriq and South Africa’s DataProphet on innovative energy solutions in Africa.

See the full list of winners, sponsors and challenges below.

During 2018, in the run up to AfricArena2018, 60 startups pitched their businesses in regional events in eight cities across Africa. Many of which were invited to take part in a series of challenges set by the AfricArena sponsors, all looking to solve uniquely African business problems.  

SOLUTIONS FOR THE AFRICAN MARKET

The AfricArena 2018 conference was anchored and endorsed by major international sponsors La French Tech, Silicon Cape, Vinci Energies, AirFrance KLM, Engie, Saint-Gobain, Methys, Rogerwilco, City of Cape Town, Proparco, RCS, and Leroy Merlin.

The following sponsors specifically came to South Africa and AfricArena to explore innovation opportunities within Africa and abroad: RCS, Saint-Gobain, AirFrance KLM, Vinci Energies, VivaTech, Leroy Merlin, Engie, Sanofi and FSAT Labs.

“We expect to have a different approach from these startups, a bright idea that could be easily implemented, and also to benefit from what is very high potential in terms of innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives. And to find solutions that are very well adapted to the African market,” said Jean-Michel Mathieu, CEO of Joon, a subsidiary of Air France.

“African entrepreneurs are very willing to find solutions, to take risks, they address vital expectations and needs, and they are looking at the challenges with a very frugal mindset. I think this is a lesson for us as well, we learn a lot working with them and collaborating with them to find the right solutions and we take this inspiration back to Europe with us,” said Lydia Babaci-Victor, Chief Innovation and Development Officer at Vinci Energies.

Vincent Viollain, co-Founder and Head of Partnerships and Startups at VivaTech, the biggest tech conference in Europe said: “The leapfrog ability of African technology has become a bit of a cliché. But when you get a chance to see it, you’ll see that it’s actually true. African technology is frugal, its smart and it can have an impact locally as well as globally. In our winner, Aerobotics’ case we believe the solution can move beyond physical borders, and also have application in different industry sectors.” 

AFRICARENA WINNERS:

The startups who won the challenges, were grateful of the experience and excited to be moving forward with some of the largest corporations across the globe.

“Oniriq provides access to African rural populations through energy and the internet. It’s great to be here at AfricArena, it has been a journey. For two months we’ve been participating in this challenge since the selection two months ago in Dakar with Vinci Energies team and we’ve been in discussions since. For us the win is a great achievement and we’re looking forward to starting our collaboration in Senegal,” said Rodolphe Rosier, Founder of Oniriq. 

“We’d like to thank AfricArena and VivaTech for the opportunity to present and we’re really happy to have won and we cannot wait to be in Paris in May. We’re already expanding around the world and this presence at VivaTech 2019 will give us a great opportunity to meet the European market,” said Nasreen Patel, Head of Product at Aerobotics. 

“This is not just a win for DiscoverIkasi, it’s a win for the communities we work with across South Africa. It’s going to give them a lot more exposure. This is what we’ve been working towards since starting the business, to get to a platform where I can market DiscoverIkasi, our market, our experiences and the townships on an international stage. Now we need to go back home and form a strategy to scale the business across South Africa,” said Ntsebenziswano (Benzi) November, Founder of DiscoverIkasi.

The startups attending the conference will also each be receiving credit from AWS as part of their prizes. Each startup in attendance, winner or not, will receive $2000 in AWS credit.  

A WORD FROM THE ECO-SYSTEM

Kerry Petrie, General Manager of Silicon Cape, host ecosystem of AfricArena, states: “It’s such an amazing opportunity for entrepreneurs from all across the continent to connect and share, building bridges that may hold future partnership, export and market opportunities. It builds the visibility of the pan-African community for a local, regional and global stakeholder audience. We have to work together to increase investment in African ventures from 1%. And AfricArena is playing a pivotal role in making that a reality.”

Reflecting on the event, Christophe Viarnaud, CEO of AfricArena, expanded on the philosophy behind the conference. “AfricArena’s open collaborative Pan-African model, highly inclusive and embarking all categories of investors, ecosystem contributors, and corporates focused on innovation in Africa, has demonstrated very high impact throughout 2018 with 16 events on 3 continents. The grand finale at AfricArena2018 has shown the energy and excitement from 15 corporates, over 150 investors and 70 startups, with over $2m deals being done, startup-corporate partnerships being struck and a wave of energy and innovation from African entrepreneurs. We could not be more excited about the future, comments Viarnaud.  

THE WINNERS:

Air France KLM Challenge 1                     DiscoverIkasi

Air France KLM Challenge 2                    Sea Monster

Engie Challenge                                           Arnegy

Leroy Merlin Challenge                             BizAR Reality

Saint-Gobain Challenge 1                         Swift GeoSpatial

Saint-Gobain Challenge 2                         The Student Hub

Sanofi South Africa Challenge                Iyeza Health

The RCS Group Challenge                        ThisIsMe

Vinci Energies Challenge 1                       Oniriq

Vinci Energies Challenge 2                       DataProphet

Vivatech 2019 Challenge                          Aerobotics 

SPONSORS AND THEIR CHALLENGES:

Air France KLM Challenge 1 – optimising the airline’s travel experience while reducing its environmental footprint

Air France KLM Challenge 2 – using technology to enrich subsidiary Joon’s travel experience for its passengers

Engie Challenge – ensuing a reliable energy supply in urban areas

Leroy Merlin Challenge – immersive showroom experience that shows off a large variety of products

Saint-Gobain Challenge 1 – using satellite trend analysis to predict urban and climate challenges

Saint-Gobain Challenge 2 -- a solution to upgrade professionals’ skills across Africa, especially in remote areas.

Sanofi South Africa Challenge – optimising patient treatment adherence and completion rates

The RCS Group Challenge – storing and securing customer identity and authentication credentials

Vinci Energies Challenge 1 – using digitalisation to optimise industry and energy performance

Vinci Energies Challenge 2 – How to make energy more accessible in Africa using technology such as energy efficiency flow solutions, energy flow optimisation, blockchain and artificial intelligence

Vivatech 2019 Challenge – using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate growth and sustainability in the agriculture sector 

-- ENDS --

For more information on AfricArena or this press release, please contact:

Mika Stanvliet | 081 534 6237 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About AfricArena:

AfricArena is a conference that showcases Africa’s best startups and innovators in front of an audience of local and international investors looking for world-class talent.Celebrated as the largest tech ecosystem accelerator on the African continent, last year’s edition of AfricArena saw more than 80 startups presenting to over 100 investors with 25 countries being represented and over $2M worth of deals done. This year's edition saw 70 startups from 32 countries pitching to over 600 attendees. This year they are predicting that funding for African startups will crack US$1 billion. Earlier this year AfricArena launched a global tour to source the world's best tech innovators solving uniquely African problems, and the tour covered 66 000 kilometers in total. AfricArena is the ultimate deal-flow platform, bringing investors and startups together in one central location.

For more information visit: https://africarena2018.com

PRETORIA, Gauteng, November 17, 2018 – A new Web-Traffic Creation Project announced today that it is raising funds via a rewards crowdfunding campaign on Jumpstarter Crowdfunding.  The fundraising project is called the Pay It Forward Web-Traffic Creation Project, running to develop more web-traffic generation products.  The business set out to raise R100,000 on Jumpstarter Crowdfunding to finish development to produce and publish within three months, the next batch of its web-traffic generation properties that is going to change the web-traffic generation market in South Africa.

Responding to the market gap created by the difficulty experienced by most businesses to be found easily by their target market on Google, the Web-Traffic Creation Project sprang into action to bring about an effective way to help all businesses in need, especially in South Africa, to also experience similar success. “All businesses who give out their website name to customers that they get in touch with, can of course be easily found on Google by those specific customers, and indeed anyone else who comes across that business’ website name.  However, this limits any business being found by the majority of its potential customers i.e. all the rest of its potential customers who are actively searching in various ways on Google, every day, for the very services that they offer.  Through my schooling, we have noticed that most businesses, due to no fault of their own, don’t know how to get themselves in a position where they pop up, when services that they offer, are searched for on Google.  Ideally for the very services they offer, a business should appear on page 1 of Google search results particularly the top spots on page 1, which is really where sales occur the most.

This situation opens up an opportunity for web-traffic creation products like ours, to step in and be of valuable assistance to any business owner”, says the Pay It Forward Web-Traffic Creation Project owner, Mosima Kekana.

According to Kekana, the vigilance exercised by Google together with their regular software updates geared toward ensuring the best search experience for its users, is the underlying reason that businesses are increasingly finding it difficult to be discovered by the majority of their ideal target market on Google.  “We face it, the unfortunate reality is that even with the best products and services, and wonderfully set-up websites and search engine optimisation, most businesses are still stuck beyond Google search results that the average searcher is willing to scroll down to.  Worse, the majority of businesses are languishing near the bottom of search results on Google”, adds Kekana.

Kekana says that despite being new in the business, her Web-Traffic Creation products have achieved in three months, more than most web-traffic creation products have ever done, having consistently produced top search results for services in the markets the products have been set up for.  Kekana believes they represent the secret ingredients that produce fast web-traffic and sales.

Participation in this rewards-based Pay It Forward Web-Traffic Creation Project will attract a varied audience from those who love tech products and services that jumpstart growth for new and small business owners, to those who love fast web-traffic and sales results.  Not excluded from the rewards listed in this project are also those who would love free websites and website content done for them.  Kekana says the rewards for pledges towards the fundraising campaign, include answering personal burning questions about the art of progressing a website to ultimately land on the first page of Google search results.  Amongst the rest of the attractive rewards, backers for this project will also get an opportunity to nominate anyone or any business to have a website built for them as part of this Pay-It-Forward Web-Traffic Creation Project.  There are multi-tiered pledge levels that go with the relevant rewards.

The fundraising and rewards portion of the project closes on 14 December 2018.  For more information about this project as well as the rewards and how to contribute, go to Jumpstarter at https://jumpstarter.co.za/projects/pay-it-forward-web-traffic-creation-project/

Media Contact
Mosima Kekana
Project Owner
081 389 9571
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Campaign Page URL - https://jumpstarter.co.za/projects/pay-it-forward-web-traffic-creation-project/  

AfricArena, Silicon Cape and Wesgro host expert discussion and release research indicating funding raised by African startups to increase by 100%+, exceeding $1 billion for the first time.

Tuesday, 30 October, Cape Town – In the wake of the SA Investment Conference that took place last week, AfricArena, Wesgro and Silicon Cape hosted a press conference at the InvestSA One Stop Shop in Cape Town, making public new partnerships for the conference and discussing the role conferences and accelerators like AfricArena play in attracting investment to the continent.

Partech Ventures’ latest annual funding report shows that venture capital funding in 2017 reached $560 million, recording 53% year on year growth. South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria dominate with 6% of total funding. Francophone Africa is accelerating with 14% of the deal transactions and financial inclusion (off-grid tech, fintech and insuretech) representing 45% of deals.

The track record shows the trend is that African tech entrepreneurs are raising more and more funding. Yet, the amount of investment going to African tech startups represents less than $50c per capita whilst in Europe the investment is $50 per capita in the USA $150. Currently, less than 1% of global tech investment is into Africa whereas on the global scene, in 2017 the USA attracted $74 billion, Asia $71 billion and Europe nearly $18 billion.

“If we are to create the next generation of successful entrepreneurs competing at a global scale – clearly the challenge remains as an input and output measure to increase the level of capita that African startups attract,” states Christophe Viarnaud, CEO of AfricArena and Methys. ““It is predicted that in 2050 and 2100, there will be more than 50 cities with more than one million people on the African continent, and the majority of the most highly populated cities in the world will be in Africa. This is a very important factor in terms of being a fundamental underlying trend which is going to drive increasing investment in Africa, therefore we foresee the investment in African tech startups to exceed the $10 billion annual mark in the next decade.”

Based on internal research conducted in 2018, AfricArena, Silicon Cape and Wesgro expect the funding raised by African startups to increase by 100%+, exceeding $1 billion for the first time and achieve $1 dollar per capita, positioning Africa as the fastest growing area in the world.

“Another interesting thing is the emphasis we put on taking our startups to the bigger stages outside of the continent,” adds Danai Musandu, Investment Associate, Goodwell Investments BV, “You always find more people rushing to go to Silicon Valley to go see where the big stage and the content is. But we need to have a change of perspective and a change of attitude, where people will say ‘We’re going to Africa, where the big stage of the future is’. The biggest barrier is our perspective and we need to change that perspective.”

AfricArena is a pan-African ecosystem accelerator whose mission is to help African startups access market and capital. The primary outcome measure is investment deals done around the event.

AfricArena 2018 Announcements

Over 70 start ups from over 30 countries will attend, competing in 11 open innovation challenges

In partnership with We Think Code, AfricArena will run a hackathon on a mobility challenge for the City of Cape Town

EM Lyon, a world-ranked business school, joins as academic partner and will stream AfricArena live on its Casablanca, Lyon and Singapore campuses

Over 100 investors from US, Europe, Africa will attend or follow on the live streaming of the pitch sessionsAfricArena announced partnership with Deep Tech platform ‘Hello Tomorrow’ and a Deep Tech Africa challenge that will take place on Day 2 of AfricArena.

Silicon Cape members to receive early bird special of 50% off AfricArena tickets 

EM Lyon is an international business school priding themselves in “making entrepreneurs for Africa”. They capitalize on the worldwide-recognized experience and quality of their programs and offer both students and corporations content that is tailored to their context and to their problems. EM Lyon is fully in line with their signature "early maker": a school that tries, investigates and innovates far ahead of others.

Hello Tomorrow organises mentorship programs and a series of events around the world, as well as educating and consulting relevant stakeholders on emergence of deep technologies with the platform fast becoming a key reference in deeptech innovation and entrepreneurship.

Sarah Pedroza, Managing Director of Hello Tomorrow, states: “Deeptech innovation happening today knows no borders. But the opportunities and resources to catalyze these solutions are unevenly distributed. We need to give better tools to deeptech entrepreneurs in ecosystems that are booming, connecting them to a global network of industry leaders, investors and policy makers in order to bring their concepts to market. We’re excited to partner with AfricArena, joining their flagship event in one of the biggest tech hubs in Africa, which is a great opportunity to bring key stakeholders together.”

Finalists for the internationally sponsored challenges were also announced:

VINCE ENERGIES CHALLENGE – How to make energy more accessible in Africa thanks to energy efficiency solutions, energy flows optimization blockchain and/or AI - Rensource (Nigeria), BIG POT – Nigeria, Oniriq – Senegal

SAINT-GOBAIN CHALLENGE – A solution to upgrade professionals’ skills across Africa - Syafunda (South Africa), The Student Hub (South Africa), Ceed Learning (South Africa)

VIVATECH CHALLENGE – How AI can help generate a self-sustaining growth in the AgriTech industry - Agrocenta (Kenya), Homefarm (South Africa), Aerobotics (South Africa)AfricArena will take place on 15 & 16 November.

More information available at www.africarena2018.com

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For more information on AfricArena or this press release, please contact:

Mika Stanvliet | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 081 534 6237 

About AfricArena:

Celebrated as the largest tech ecosystem accelerator on the African continent, last year’s edition of AfricArena saw more than 80 startups presenting to over 100 investors with 25 countries being represented and over $2M worth of deals done. The conference serves as a platform for the continent’s best startups and innovators to showcase their world-class talent in front of an audience of both local and international investors. AfricArena is the ultimate deal-flow platform, bringing investors and startups together in one central location.

The challenges run by AfricArena are sponsored by Vinci Energies, AirFrance, Engie, Sanofi, Leroy Merlin, the City of Cape Town and RCS.

The conference is anchored and endorsed by corporate sponsors and partners La French Tech, Silicon Cape, Wesgro, SEDA, and will be covered by several media such as Techcrunch, Les Echos, Maddyness, Fast Company and many others. 

De Beers Venetia mine has partnered with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to empower and uplift local entrepreneurs through the annual Incubation Support Programme. Entrepreneurial development is one of the most effective ways of stimulating economic growth and creating jobs in local communities. With a 52% youth and 26,6% overall unemployment rate in South Africa, including pressures to meet the 2020 Global Initiative, approximately 11 million jobs need to be created by 2020 and this can be mainly achieved through the development of small businesses. To promote economic growth surrounding its operations, De Beers supports about 90 entrepreneurs through unique and specialised enterprise development and support programmes. The recent incubation support workshops were held in Musina and Blouberg in the Limpopo Province for 40 local enterprises.

The partnership with the NYDA ensures that young entrepreneurs are mentored and offered skills in financial management, operations and business management. The entrepreneurs are further linked with financing or business opportunities. Gregory Petersen, Senior Commercial Manager for De Beers says, “De Beers is extremely proud to be involved in the incubation programme because we are passionate about ensuring sustainable development and positively impacting future generations in the communities in which we operate. This programme will ensure that we develop sustainable businesses that will create jobs and opportunities for local entrepreneurs, elevating communities above poverty levels and reducing unemployment”.

The incubation programme features a monthly classroom training session offering mentorship on topics such as market research, financial management and operational management which should ultimately lead local businesses having bankable business plans.The workshop hosted at the Mudzwiri Lodge in Musina, was also attended by officials from the Provincial Treasury who promoted the use of the new internet-based portal to access Limpopo province government business opportunities or tenders which are advertised on the platform. The Blouberg local municipality also encouraged entrepreneurs to participate in local procurement opportunities to create job opportunities in local communities.About 12 young entrepreneurs currently involved in the incubation programme presented their businesses to the NYDA with the aim of accessing funding.  Phathutshevi Madima from Rodges Projects, a beneficiary of the programme says she hopes to grow her construction business and prove that women can thrive in the construction industry.

“It is rare to find a woman in the construction business, and I am in it to prove that female led construction businesses can work, and dispel the stereotypes. Ever since I presented my story to the NYDA and De Beers, I have become more confident and more motivated. I am now able to go out and source clients, something I was not able to do before.”“I currently employ two people and when I obtain funding from the NYDA, I will be able to employ over 10 people and make a difference in my community,” says Madina. “De Beers is pleased to see younger people taking advantage of the business opportunities afforded to them, more so the opportunity those looking to participate in the diamond sector value chain. We will support these businesses as way of reducing unemployment in local communities,” says Lesiba Lamola, Venetia ESD Manager.

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Contact Jackie Mapiloko+ (0)11 374 7173 and+27 (0)83 436 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About De Beers Group
De Beers Group is a member of the Anglo American plc group. Established in 1888, De Beers Group is the world’s leading diamond company with expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers Group employs more than 20,000 people across the diamond pipeline and is the world’s largest diamond producer by value, with mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. As part of the company’s operating philosophy, the people of De Beers Group are committed to ‘Building Forever’ by making a lasting contribution to the communities in which they live and work, and transforming natural resources into shared national wealth. For further information about De Beers Group, visit www.debeersgroup.com. 

EduOne has, for 26 months, been climbing into the hearts and minds of the South African youth to help better prepare them for what lies ahead: life.  Education is the key that unlocks many doors.  Yet access to education is not as simple as 1, 2, tertiary. Through EduConnect, we have managed to cover topics and resources that are vital in taking the next step, wherever our users are on the decision making journey. From grade 9 subject choices to the ins and outs of the National Benchmark Tests, EduConnect covers it all. 

With EduFunding, we have created a centralised funding application portal to bring funding opportunities closer to those in need. We have developed an innovative management system for tertiary funding.  This aims to entice corporate organisations to offer more funding to our youth in an efficient and seamless way. We’ve also seeded a revolutionary mentorship program to help reduce drop-out rates and support beneficiaries in their studies.

Over 1.5 million people have accessed these websites in the past two years.  This makes EduOne one of the fastest growing startups in South Africa, attracting international interests from New York, Switzerland and Hong Kong, amongst others. The shake up With so many people visiting our sites every month, and many more interacting with our brand, we wanted to make sure our sites worked seamlessly and looked unbelievably sexy.  So we undertook the task of sitting with experts, specialists and, most importantly, our users to gain an understanding of what would work best. 

After designing new front-ends, re-building foundations and developing fresh features for days, we have come to a point where we can reveal these masterpieces to the interweb. We can select the book that reveals the secret door and let our work emerge from the abyss. Okay, Shakespeare, so when is this happening?

Date: Friday 31 March 2017

Time: 12h00 Central Africa Time

Recommended music pairing: Circle of Life – The Lion King

To get a better idea of what the fuss is about, here is a list of some of the changes that are happening on the sites:

• New and improved user interfaces.
• Redesigned navigation and menu structures.
• Mobile-first and data-light considerations.
• New features, including tag clouds and improved search functionality.
• Advanced marketing opportunities offered exclusively to academic institutions and organisations offering funding opportunities.
• A brand new directory listing of institutions in South Africa (EduConnect only).
• New tutorials & downloadable resources (EduConnect only).
• New career profile and entrepreneurship sections (EduConnect only).
• The newly released mentorship technology (EduFunding only).
• A re-factored approach to the application process (EduFunding only).
• Industry-firsts with new features in fund disbursement (EduFunding only).

We sincerely hope you enjoy the changes made to these two websites. Our aim is to make sure we’re on the right track with them so it’s important for us to get as much feedback as possible. Please click the button below to offer some valued advice and wise words for our team to consider.

Give us feedback

MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI), a quantitative leadership startup based in Johannesburg, South Africa has launched an audacious program entitled "The Mothers for STEM Initiative".This initiative seeks to empower 150 women with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) tutoring businesses by the end of 2017.  

South African learners perennially do badly in maths and science subjects compared to their peers in other countries as shown by the low ranking in both the TIMSS and WEF reports on educational quality. On this background, MathsGenius a STEM advisory start-up saw it fit to address some of the fundamental problems associated with this failure in STEM.

A study done by MGLI in 2014 showed that the weakest link in the maths and science education learner spectrum were rural and township girls. They are the one who were seen to pose the greatest threat to success of the country in STEM subjects and careers. Upon further analysis a strong correlation between a mother's belief system around maths and science and their daughter's performance was established. 

"The best way to get more girls into STEM is to involve the community especially the mothers", stated Edzai Zvobwo, Chief Genius at MGLI. To put these sentiments into practice, MGLI has embarked on an ambitious project to provide motivation, training and support to 150 mothers who will become STEM tutoring business owners within their communities.

MGLI is looking for willing partners to come into fray and contribute towards the achievement of this goal. The model will see MGLI setting up an online education ERP system and LMS that will allow continuous monitoring of the entrepreneurs and learners and measuring progress and impact as the project goes on. MGLI will provide the prospective entrepreneurs with a "school-in-a-box" solution that they can simply plug and play to the benefit of learners. 

For information on this initiative you can visit Mothers of STEM  or  send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.