Scaling Internet-Based Startups in African Markets

We’ve all heard of the idea that entrepreneurs are people who see a ‘gap’ in the market and then create a product or service to address that gap. The implication is that there’s a ready market there that will snap … Read More

Rethinking Startup Finance in Africa

I had a wonderful opportunity to have a discussion with Eric Osiakwan an African tech luminary from Ghana and director of Ghana’s Cyber City initiative about startup financing in Africa, particularly in the technology sector. Eric has worked and ventured in 32 … Read More

Africa Spotlight: Global Entrepreneurship Congress Report from Rio, Brazil

Last week over 1,500 delegates from 100+ countries involved in entrepreneurship ecosystem building descended on the lovely city of Rio De Janeiro for the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Congress backed by Kauffman Foundation, supported locally by the city of Rio, Endeavor Brazil and … Read More

African or Africa-focused Tech Investors

Africa-targeted private equity and VC is on the rise, last year (2012) the total worth of PE deals closed in sub-Saharan Africa grew 10% from 2011 to $1.16 billion with funds raised for the region being $1.4 billion up from … Read More

10 Deadly Mistakes and Pitfalls African Startups should avoid in 2013

We are about to hit 2013, last year I wrote an optimistic post about the 12 trends to watch in Africa tech, there has been some very positive developments indeed and rather than repeat and add to any potential Africa … Read More

Comparisons and Lessons from the Kenyan and Jordanian Startup Ecosystems

In 2009, Yahoo acquired Maktoob a thriving Arab online community that had 16 million users at the time, Mashable.com reported a suspected price of $85M

Sitting at a lively roundtable discussion between young technology entrepreneurs during Amman’sMixNMentor at Oasis500, a leading seed investor … Read More

Looking North: Investigating Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship in North Africa

Much of our focus in the past has centered around Sub-Saharan Africa and in particularly key ‘hubs’ in the region – Nigeria in Western Africa, Kenya in Eastern Africa and South Africa in Southern Africa. However, it goes without saying … Read More

Tunisian Startup Creates More Efficient Means of Harnessing the Wind

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” – Albert Einstein

The grandest of innovators are those who go beyond trying … Read More

The Silicon Savannah: Of Vanity Capital and Vanity Companies

This article was originally written by Jonathan Kalan for ImpactIQ.

NAIROBI – Here at ground zero for the new era of African innovation, investors are learning what an impact investing “bubble” looks like. Too much money, too few investment-ready … Read More

Startup Culture = Entrepreneurship Culture + Innovation Culture (SC = EC + IC)

Part of our recently released ebook “Innovative Africa: The new face of Africa“, studies startup ecosystems or clusters, what makes them tick and what it takes to create one.

As far as creating startup ecosystems especially as far as technology … Read More