South Africa’s City of Joburg (Johannesburg) has launched the #Hack.Jozi challenge, inviting applications from tech entrepreneurs providing digital solutions to community problems.
Successful applicants stand to win up to ZAR5 million (US$429,500), access to technical and business resources – including workspace – and will participate in a month-long bootcamp involving intensive business training and mentoring from industry experts.
The bootcamp will feature a number of technical hackathons, and will culminate in a demo day when startups will be asked to present their business value proposition.
“Our aim is to contribute towards fostering skills, innovation and entrepreneurship in the broad area of digital technology,” the organisation said.
“The programme is in support of capacity development, job creation and enterprise development.”
Applications are open to individual entrepreneurs and startups teams alike, but the key criteria is that applicants must use digital skills to for a positive impact within their community.
To apply, entrepreneurs need to create a product page via the #Hack.Jozi platform which will feature a video of no longer than two minutes and a description aimed at inspiring excitement about the project and showing capability to make the venture a success.
Applications close on February 15.
