SBC AfriTech Hosts Corporate-Focused Hackathon for Startups To Demonstrate Market TractionStartupbootcamp AfriTech, the only Pan-African Accelerator for technology-enabled emerging businesses in Africa, enables startups or scale-ups already showing market traction the opportunity to work with industry giants.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur South Africa, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Startupbootcamp (SBC) AfriTech is hosting a corporate-focused hackathon in Johannesburg on 2 – 3 May 2019 for startups or scale-ups looking to run pilots or proof of concepts with some of the most innovative corporates on the African continent.
For large corporates operating on the African continent, SBC AfriTech provides the ultimate "sandbox' for rapid experimentation. The programme's uniquely Pan-African presence enables partners to outsource portions of their R&D and innovation sourcing by connecting them directly with startups and scaleups in their industry.
"Old Mutual is delighted to host this year's Hackathon and look forward to an exhilarating few days," says Anton Kleingeld, Head of Strategic Partnership & Alliances at Old Mutual. "Our support of SBC initiatives reflects our commitment to building a growing ecosystem of partners that will help us to deliver innovative solutions and sustainable financial wellbeing for our customers and the broader community.
"In particular, we are excited to work with scale-ups that can rapidly help to solve some of Old Mutual's existing problem statements. In our organisation, it is vital that we build a portfolio of early- and later-stage start-ups across a variety of sectors. This certainly creates value for our customers and our business, not only over different time horizons, but also across various elements of our value chains," he says.
The purpose of the hackathon
The Johannesburg hackathon has been designed specifically by and for the Accelerator's esteemed corporate partners. Startups or scale-ups with solutions solving any of the target areas will be given a rare opportunity to work directly with the key business stakeholders and technical gatekeepers from each partner.
AWS is setting up a secure development environment to protect the datasets and the code brought to the event. Each corporate partner will open selected data sets particular to the target areas and hackathon attendees will rapidly adapt their existing products or solutions to demonstrate how it could solve the challenges for the corporate partner and their customers.
The aim of the hackathon is to enable startups and scale-ups to directly engage with industry giants. For attendees, the hack has the potential to lead to pilots or proof-of-concepts with the relevant corporates should they be able to demonstrate that their solution is valid and relevant to the challenges posed.
"We are particularly seeking later stage startups and scaleups that already have products in the market," says Nsovo Nkatingi, SBC AfriTech Programme Director. "These solutions should be products that can be quickly modified to solve for the specific challenge areas. It is important to note that there are no costs or obligations for the participants, so it's truly a dream opportunity to showcase your innovative tech directly to key stakeholders."
The hackathon is exclusively for those already showing traction in the market, with a viable solution or product that can be rapidly adapted.
SBC AfriTech's 2019 Accelerator
SBC AfriTech's 2019 Accelerator kicks off on August 12th and is aimed at startups offering real solutions for the African continent, looking for the experience, advice, corporate connections and mentorship necessary to scale in the global market.
Applying to the Accelerator is not a requirement for attending the Johannesburg Hackathon and vice versa.
Clickhereto register for the Johannesburg Hackathon.
