Is your startup ready for DEMO Africa 2015?

There are only 48 days left until the window for the applications for DEMO Africa 2015 closes. That deadline might not raise any concerns or mean anything for most people, but for African tech startups looking for the kind of springboard this showcase offers, then being ready on or before 31 May 2015 is a big deal.

The DEMO Africa tech entrepreneurship showcase is held annually and is meant to enable a number of startups selected from around Africa to meet venture capitalists, investors and potential business partners.

This year, DEMO Africa is looking for 30 finalists, a number that has been whittled down from the traditional class of 40 startups. DEMO Africa is slated for the 24th and 25th of September and will be held in Lagos, Nigeria.

While the focus has always been solutions derived from tech, the problem areas that are supposed to be addressed by the finalists are diverse and include, among others, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Finance and Banking, Retailing, Energy, Recycling, and Transport.

Last year Zimbabwe was represented by SaiSai Wireless, a startup comprised of students from the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo. SaiSai developed a wireless mesh network solution that provides free public access WiFi while generating revenue through targeted advertising.

SaiSai went on to gain recognition by winning the SWELL Innovation Award, which is an ancillary honour sponsored by the SWELL Foundation, a corporate innovation accelerator with roots in Silicon Valley.

Does your start have a solution that is solving a commercial problem and is set to make an impact or change the marketplace into which it’s introduced? Are you creating a new market? Do you have a business plan and a management team capable of delivering the product to market? Have you been operating without any publicity so far but want and need that huge springboard?

If your answers are yes to these questions then you just might be ready for DEMO Africa.

You can find out more about how to be a part of it this year by following this link.

image credit: SaiSai