Pan-African startup competition AMPION has announced it will run five Venture Bus tours on the continent this year, taking in 14 African countries along the way.
Disrupt Africa reported last year AMPION ran buses in West, Southern, East and North Africa between October and December 2014, and the company is now returning for the third year in a row with more routes planned.
Five buses will run through 14 African countries, with 200 participants looking to build 40 new startups. Applications are now open for coders, business developers, designers and experts from various industries worldwide.
Each tour is a seven-day full-immersion programme for developing entrepreneurial skills and creating new ventures in a team-based competition set on a bus. Buses will run across the continent, with the AMPION Venture Bus visiting Morocco for the first time.
Each tour culminates at a Grand Final, incorporated within tech conferences such as DEMO Africa in Nigeria, AfricaCom in South Africa and the Transform Africa Summit in Rwanda.
“We believe, home-grown entrepreneurship and startups tackling social needs are the best way to sustainable growth on the continent,” said AMPION chief executive officer (CEO) Fabian Guhl.
The first two years of the AMPION Venture Bus programme produced over 30 African tech startups, working in healthcare, education, fintech, public transport, citizen engagement, tourism, and water sanitation. This year AMPION hopes to help build 40 new companies.
The company is also partnering different groups to set a focus on selected topics on each Venture Bus, with experts to advise entrepreneurs along the way and potentially facilitate investment by their company into the developed startups.
