The Startup Bus Africa will be taking a road trip across southern Africa from Harare to Cape town, the 2500km, trying to find the best app idea from the occupants of the bus. The idea that was first seen in the USA is in Africa for the first time.
For the 41 places offered in the bus, there were 250 applications sent in. Germany is the most represented in the bus, followed by Zimbabwe and South Africa. Other countries represented in the bus include: Botswana, Kenya, Ghana, Tansania, Australia and the USA. Kenya is represented by 26 year old Mark who taught himself programming a year ago through Youtube videos. He’s been living in Capetown for the past seven years and is currently studying Engineering at a South African University.
The main specification for the apps being developed is that they are in the Energy, Health or Mobile sector; they need to be relevant to the African market and have to be completed by the time the bus reaches Cape town at the end of the tour.
The StartUp Bus was organised by Fabian-Carlos Guhl (31), from Berlin.