Start-up Bus, an annual “˜entrepreneurial roadtrip‘, has finally spread their reach and will for the first time this year come to African soil.
Founded in 2009, Start-up Bus has given many young, start-up companies and developers a platform to cultivate and launch their company across the US and Europe.
The initiative gives the roadtrippers – or “˜buspreneurs‘ as they say – an opportunity to conceive, build and then eventually launch their start-up at the end of the trip. The buspreneurs will be accompanied by 10 industry mentors through out their journey. The whole event will also be covered by members of the media, who will join the entrepreneurs and their mentors on the revolutionary road trip.
More than 200 African applicants applied to be a part of the journey. Out of the 200, 15 international and 15 African entrepreneurs were selected to join in on the wonderful business opportunity.
The idea for the African leg of the journey, is to give budding, forward-thinking African entrepreneurs the opportunity to launch their start-up in a developing market. The international participants will also be given guidance in understanding the African market.
The carefully selected participants in the journey comprise of industry professionals with the required skills to launch a successfull start-up.
50% of the participants will be coders, while 25% are designers and the remaining 25% comprise of business developers.
The African Start-up Bus is focused on creating business opportunities and solutions focused on mobile, health care and energy. All three of which is key in developing African markets.
Start-up Bus will make it‘s way across Southern Africa from the 17th to the 21st of November, starting in Harare and ending with the final event in Cape Town.
The final pitch of Start-up Bus in Cape Town, will also be attended (virtually, via Google Hangouts) by one of the most prolific entrepreneurs of our time, Sir Richard Branson himself.
Start-up Bus says they chose to come to Africa because of the enormous growth of the tech industry in Africa over the past couple of years. According to them, the African tech industry represents 4.4% of africa‘s GDP. This means an estimated $32 billion to the Sub-Saharan African economy.
Start-up Bus is a revolutionary initiative that could further the growth of mobile and tech companies and start-ups in South africa and Africa itself.
If you would like to sign up for next year‘s roadtrip, visit the Start-up Bus website at www.africa.startupbus.com
Also, check out the video below on the Africa initiative:
Source: The Next Web
