How to launch your startup with World-Bank support ? The World Bank Group has launched XL Africa, a five-month business acceleration program designed to support the 20 most promising digital start-ups from Sub-Saharan Africa.
As a part of the program the start-ups will receive mentoring from global and local experts, learn through a tailor-made curriculum, increase their regional visibility, and get access to potential corporate partners and investors. With support from prominent African investment groups, XL Africa will help the 20 selected start-ups attract early stage capital between $250,000 and $1.5 million.
“Digital start-ups are important drivers of innovation in Africa,” says Makhtar Diop, Vice President for the Africa Region at the World Bank. “To scale and spread new technologies and services beyond borders, they need an integrated ecosystem that provides access to regional markets and global finance; pan-African initiatives like XL Africa play a critical role by linking local start-ups with corporations and investors across the continent.”
6 artificial intelligence startups in Africa to look out for [Digital All Stars] –
Digital All Stars is a series of articles which aims to celebrate the best of South African digital. The articles, which will appear on Memeburn and Ventureburn, recognise and celebrate South Africa’s best digital entrepreneurs, business people, advertisers, and media professionals among others.
Orange partners with Facebook on startup accelerator – Orange has partnered with Facebook to launch a startup accelerator focused on network infrastructure innovation.
Orange is working with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Facebook to launch a new ‘Telecom Track’ as part of its Orange Fab accelerator programme in France.
The startups will receive all of the current benefits of the Orange Fab programme, with dedicated workshops, mentoring sessions, an optional €15,000 in funding, and access to work space at the Orange Gardens research and innovation campus in Paris.
BBVA Buys Mexican Payments Startup Openpay
BBVA Bancomer, a fully owned subsidiary of BBVA, has acquired Mexico-based payments startup Openpay to tap into its network of more than 15,000 payment reception points across the country, according to Paybefore sister publication Banking Technology.
Openpay offers a platform for physical and electronic payments for businesses through its real-time Paynet network. The startup manages more than 1 million transactions a month and its platform is used by more than 1,000 businesses in Mexico, including startups, SMEs and corporate clients, according to BBVA. This is BBVA’s first acquisition of a Latin American startup dedicated to electronic commerce. Terms of the deal were not available.
Malaysia Digital Hub launches – Enables startups to get up close and personal with digital economy global markets
Introduced by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the hub aims to bring the internet startup community and support under one roof.
Spotify acquires blockchain startup Mediachain to improve music attribution
Spotify has acquired Mediachain in an effort to create a fairer, more transparent, and more rewarding music industry for creators and rights owners using blockchain technology.