Hey there! Today’s TechCabal digest is brought to you by Tizeti; they are offering Lagos residents unlimited internet for N5,000, and you can sign up for that here. Here’s everything interesting in African technology today. If you’re reading this, you’re probably not subscribed to TechCabal’s daily digest. Click here to get this goodness in your mailbox every day at 7am (GMT +1).
First off, major stuff happening
1. West Africa Global Impact Challenge – The Meltwater School of Technology (MEST) has partnered with Singularity University to host a West Africa Global Impact Challenge. It’s open to participants in any West African country and the main purpose of the challenge is to foster “moonshot” innovations and startups that positively impact the lives of people living in the region, with an ability to scale and impact a billion people worldwide in 10 years. Entrepreneurs, technologists & scientists that can develop an idea and launch a startup that addresses climate change are invited to apply. Winner walks home with full sponsorship to Singularity University at its campus in Silicon Valley at NASA Research Park while all semi-finalists and finalists will participate in an immersive workshop experience in Lagos. Link.
2. #FlyWithJumia – Jumia Travel has launched its own flight booking service. It’s part of their strategy to become a one-stop shop for everything travel in Africa. So now, they’ve got accommodation, packages, and flights on the platform. They’re offering both domestic and international flights and you can check it out here. Watch out, Wakanow.
+ Wakanow says Jumia should bring it on. Wild.
3. Pitch dis tin – Uber is partnering with Mettā & Nairobi Innovation Week to host its UberPITCH campaign. On March 6, entrepreneurs in Nairobi will have a chance to request a ride to pitch to an investor in the back of an Uber. Entrepreneurs are to submit video applications and if selected, they’ll get an exclusive promo code to apply to their Uber account and use on that day. Applications close on March 1st.
4. Millions of people in Southern Cameroon have not had access to the internet for 38 Days – Please lend your voice and ask the Cameroonian government to #BringBackOurInternet.
You can now apply for Ventures Platform‘s (VP) accelerator program. It’s a 4-month program that’s designed to support startups at the MVP stage with mentorship, business re-engineering, work space, living space, back office support, shared services and seed funding. Link.
What else is going on?
+ OotheNigerian drops more wisdom on the internship discussion. Here’s an article on why a Nigerian Glassdoor is important even though startup founders might not like the idea.
+ The Chief on why local technology is crucial for payment innovation in Africa. Link.
+ Startup founders & entrepreneurs, here’s a primer on unit economics. You should read it.
Hot topic(s) on TechCabal Radar
+ We’re hosting Fola Olatunji-David, Incubation Manager at Ventures Platform at a Radar AMA Session this Friday, February 24. Fola will be answering questions on incubation and acceleration in Nigeria and specifically at Ventures Platform. If you’d like us to send you a reminder when the session is about to commence, let us know here.
+ This thread on the hedge fund that issued a cryptocurrency that looks exactly like the Nigerian Naira went from 0 to 100 real quick. Trust Radar people to get it back on track.
Applications are open until February 24 for Lagos Angel Network’s (LAN) Startup DealDay for the first quarter of 2017. Startups that have been operating for 2 – 5 years with paying customers and good financial track records are invited to apply. The event is scheduled for March 24 and selected startups stand a chance to receive between N25 – N50 million in seed funding. Interested startups can apply here.
Upcoming events
Cape Town: e-Commerce MoneyAfrica Confex 2017, 22nd – 23rd February. Link
Nairobi: Tech4Integrity challenge launch, 23rd February. Link.
Lagos: usable meetup, 23rd February. Link.
Nairobi: Sankalp Africa Summit 2017, 23rd – 24th February. Link
Lagos: Agile Lagos Meetup, 24th February. Link.
Lagos: Office of the Citizen Hackathon 2.0, 24th – 26th February. Link.
Lagos: Lagos on Rails 2017, 25th February. Link
Lagos: Startup Grind, with Nimi Akinkugbe, 25th February. Link
Registration is now open for Starta’s Side Hustle Bootcamp taking place in Lagos in February. 25 entrepreneurs will undergo one weekend of intensive practical learning on how to ideate, start, launch and get funding for tech-enabled businesses. The bootcamp is from Friday, February 24 to Sunday, February 26. The fee starts at N60,000 but digest subscribers can get 10% off using our discount code – SHBTC10. Apply here.
That’s all folks
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