As of today, applications for the five Venture Bus tours in Africa are open. At the African Development Bank Annual Meeting the organization for entrepreneurship in emerging markets, Ampion, unveiled details on its programs in 2015. For the third year in a row, Ampion will run a pan‐African startup competition joined by participants from all across the globe.
On the road, entrepreneurs are supported by experienced mentors from leading tech centers in Africa and world‐wide and develop information and communication technology (ICT) solutions for the African market – this has already lead to capital investment and job creation in Africa.
Venture Buses are driving through 14 countries all across Africa.
This year five Ampion Venture Buses will cross 14 African countries. Each tour is a 7‐day full‐immersion program for developing entrepreneurial skills and creating new ventures in a team‐based competition set on a bus. Venture Buses run in East, West, North and Southern Africa. The Ampion Venture Bus will come to Morocco for the first time. Each Venture Bus tour culminates at a Grand Final, incorporated within the continent’s most renowned tech conferences such as DEMO Africa (Nigeria), AfricaCom (South Africa) and the Transform Africa Summit (Rwanda). Along the road, the Venture Bus and its participants visit all major tech‐ and startup‐communities within each region to hold local events, getting in touch with thousands of Africa’s most promising IT talents.
“We believe, home‐grown entrepreneurship and startups tackling social needs are the best way to sustainable growth on the continent,” says Ampion CEO Fabian Guhl.
In the frame of five major final events all across Africa, startups are pitched to leading companies, investors as well as the hosting countries’ ministers such as Rwandan Minister of Youth and ICT Jean Philbert Nsengimana. In the first two years of the Ampion Venture Bus program, over 30 African tech startups emerged, providing ICT solutions to issues in healthcare, education, fin‐tech, public transport, citizen engagement, tourism, water sanitation and much more.
40 new companies are expected to come out of the Venture Buses 2015. Last year Ampion received applications from more than 2000 applicants from 43 countries. In 2015, in its third year, the organization is expecting yet innovations in modern banking, e‐health and more – still open for partners.
This year Ampion is partnering up with corporate and public partners to set a focus on selected topics on each Venture Bus. Experts will advise the entrepreneurs along the way and potentially facilitate investment by their company into the developed startups. The focus in the regions will be:
Tunisia: female empowerment – ‘females only’ Venture Bus
East Africa: e‐health, fin‐tech and governance
West Africa: e‐health, fin‐tech and governance
Southern Africa: hardware & agriculture
While these Venture Buses will have one or more topical focus each, the development of startups in other sectors is still possible on every Venture Bus.
