Ben and myself are very excited to see Djoss.tv take home the Grand Prize at the 2012 Cameroon Startup Challenge. The awards event held in Douala was an electric evening filled with positive energy and enthusiasm from all the invited guests.

Djoss.tv is a social TV platform that lets viewers engage their favorite TV shows in real-time. The service brings television programming to life by allowing viewers to, for example, share their excitement when their favorite football team scores a goal or join a heated debate on a social issue. By unlocking this real-time sharing, Djoss.tv integrates a missing social layer into any television program. The service also provides viewers with additional context and information on the program they are viewing, introducing an important tool for editorial staff.

For the cable companies providing the shows, Djoss.tv is an innovative tool that is used to gather critical feedback from the audience. It’s also an important tool for advertisers and sponsors to engage with audiences to further brand awareness. The Djoss.tv team has completed a successful pilot with Spectrum Television Cameroon (STV) and is looking to secure a partnership with them while looking to expand their offering beyond Cameroon’s borders.

The project is headed up by an outstanding team that includes Patrick NDJIENTCHEU, a software engineer and cofounder of Koutchoumi.com, Hervé DJIA, a software engineer and tech enthusiast, Eloge FOKEM, a web developer and CEO of the web agency Dotcomcm.com, and Kouotou ABOUBAKAR SIDIKI, a software engineer who is passionate about social media. The four person team took home a USD $5,000 cash prize. In a passionate acceptance speech, the team explained their motivations for the project and outlined some exciting developments for the future. The winnings are critical in the team’s effort to push the venture across Cameroon and abroad.

Celebrating Cameroon’s Top Innovators

The 2012 Cameroon Startup Challenge is the first competition to recognize the progress of technology entrepreneurs in the country. The award ceremony, held on September 20th at the Foyer du Marin in Douala, brought together Cameroon’s leading innovators. Also in attendance were investors and leaders from the local and international technology community. The competition was made possible through collaborations with Sanaga Ventures, AppsTech, ActivSpaces and VC4Africa.

The awards ceremony kicked off with a welcome by the hosts, Sanaga Ventures, followed by an introduction of the panel judges and the startup teams. After a review of the success criteria used to determine the winner, a presentation was made of the first and second runners up, followed by the grand prize winner. The winning team addressed the audience before a speech was delivered by Rebecca Enonchong, the CEO of AppsTech. The evening closed with a banquet dinner served at the hotel.

Judges highlighted the quality of the applications. It was noted that the applicants were well past “idea” stage with most having promising business models and working revenue streams in place. The top three finalist are presented below:

Grand Prize Winner: Djoss.tv ($5,000)

Pitch: With Djoss.tv, you’ll never watch TV the same way again. Djoss.tv is a social TV platform that lets TV viewers ever aroundywhere discuss their favorite TV shows in real-time.

For the users, Djoss.tv provides additional information and comments around their current TV shows, crowdsourced from other users, or directly from our editorial staff. Sometimes, we just want other viewers to know how pissed off we are when our favorite soccer star loses a penalty. For the cable TV companies providing the shows, Djoss.tv is a fantastic innovative tool to gather audience feedback and further develop brand awareness.

First Runner Up: KingMaker Ad Network ($1,000)

Pitch: KingMaker is an internet (cyber) cafe ad network that uses innovative technology to serve relevant ads to an audience which can be highly targeted.

Mobile internet is still too expensive for most of Cameroon’s population and few local websites have enough users to actually interest advertisers. Cyber cafes are the number one internet access points in the region because of their affordability and relatively good internet connection. We work hand in hand with them to bring relevant local advertising to their clients, thus creating extra revenue channels for their business.

Second Runner Up: AGRO-HUB

Pitch: AGRO-HUB is a startup venture setup to combat poverty among rural farmers by addressing the expressed need to boost demand for their products and earn more money from their laborious efforts and investments in the fields. We strive to achieve this through innovative use of the web and mobile technology to drive demand and distribution of the farmers’ products.

Our agricultural market development strategy involves partnering with rural farmers to source products and information for newly sort out local and international markets. Sourcing of products is done through setting up of collecting centers [or storehouses] within rural communities while sourcing of information is done through provision of SMS based tools and knowledge farmers need to access and share information about their activities. The information sourced from the farmers thereof is used on the web to attract consumers for their products.

One frequent request we’ve heard is for us to review the Solution Description, Pilot Test Plan and Sustainability Plan for a project. As much as we enjoy offering advice and coaching, as panel judges we unfortunately can’t advise teams this way. What we can do, however, is provide a link to a model document. This was an entry to the Chembe Ventures Urban Security Challenge, launched in 2010 by our colleague Sean Murphy and the Betavine Social Exchange. The level of detail is quite high here and, in fact, we’d be pleased to see a document that follows this example but at a shorter length.

Press Release: Amsterdam – Mon, May 7, 2012 9:00 AM CET

Today, VC4Africa, the largest online community of venture capitalists, angels and entrepreneurs dedicated to building businesses in Africa, and Sanaga Ventures, an early stage investment firm with a focus on African tech ventures, launched the Cameroon Startup Challenge. The competition offers a cash prize of USD $5,000 for the most innovative web, mobile or hardware-based business venture in Cameroon. As an additional benefit, the winning venture is eligible to be incubated at ActivSpaces, Cameroon’s leading technology hub, and receive ongoing support, oversight, services and mentoring. An awards ceremony will be held in Cameroon at the close of the challenge with the top three startups, participants, judges, invited guests, a video crew and local press. Entries will be accepted from May 7th – July 6th, 2012.

“The purpose of this competition is to encourage innovation across the technology sector in Cameroon and showcase the talents of the country’s top entrepreneurs,” said Bill Zimmerman, co-founder of VC4Africa and principal in Sanaga Ventures. “We’re enthusiastic about this challenge and feel strongly that we’ll see some promising startups rise to the occasion,” he added.

Sanaga Ventures is coordinating the competition and providing seed money for the winning venture. The prize money is a one-time grant and is not in exchange for equity. Follow-on funding may be available to the founder of the winning venture if it demonstrates traction and social validation in the marketplace. Established in 2011, Sanaga Ventures is an investment firm based in the Netherlands which provides seed finance, coaching and support to mobile application developers, web startups and innovative ventures in West and Central Africa.

“We have seen so many innovations come from this space. VC4Africa has an outstanding technical team based in Buea and they are the foundation for one of the continent’s most entrepreneurial online communities,” said Ben White, founder of VCAfrica and principal in Sanaga Ventures. “Innovation can come from anywhere in the world, and the next global company might very well be from Cameroon. We want to do what we can to make that happen.”

Entry Criteria

• Entrants must be registered VC4Africa members and post a venture in order to be considered
• Entries must be submitted in English
• Ventures must include a video pitch (1-2 minutes max length is recommended) from the founder(s) in order to be considered
• Entries must be designed for deployment or currently operational in Cameroon
• Entries must have a functional prototype or minimal viable product offering

How to enter

Entrants who do not have an account on VC4Africa may register for free by signing-in at VC4Africa.biz with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. New members pass through a rudimentary check by site administrators. Once approved, proceed to the Ventures section and click ‘Start Your Own Venture.’ Proceed through the Plan Cruncher steps (be sure to include a logo or representative image), mark your location on the map and submit your venture. All ventures pass through a basic screening process and will be checked for completeness before being made available to the public. Please include the following documentation in the ‘Documents’ section of your venture (note that these are only visible to VC4Africa admins, competition judges and registered investors):

1. Solution description
2. Sustainability plan
3. Pilot testing plan

The ‘Team’ tab on the published venture may be used to include links to the profile pages of key people involved with or contributing to the venture. All founders and team members are strongly encouraged to provide links to their social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter), if available.

Who is eligible?

Individuals, companies, informal groups and organisations whose primary base of operation are in Cameroon are welcome to enter the challenge.

Success criteria

The judging panel, made up of the principals of Sanaga Ventures, VC4Africa directors, representatives from ActivSpaces, AppsTech and special invited guests will assess the entries based on the following criteria:

• Value to the potential user – What problem does your product or service solve for your customer?
• Innovation – How does the entry use technology to provide creative solutions to existing problems? Which sector does it aim to disrupt?
• Ease of use and deployment – How easy is it for a non-technical user to understand and benefit from your innovation? What is required to deploy the solution?
• Stability and scalability – How easy is it to add increasing numbers of users or customers to the system?
• Business case and revenue model – How viable is the long-term plan for meeting operational costs?
• Viable pilot testing plan – What criteria will the founder(s) use to judge the success of the pilot test?
• Team – Is the venture led by a single founder, or a team of individuals with complementary skills?

Prize

A one-time cash prize of USD $5,000 will be awarded to the winning entry. First and second runners-up will be recognized with smaller cash prizes.

Opening and closing dates

The startup challenge opens May 7th, 2012 and closes July 6th, 2012 at midnight CET.

Judging panel

These individuals have agreed to participate in evaluation and selection of the winning venture and the first and second runners-up:

1. Rebecca Enonchong – CEO, AppsTech
2. Georges Mpoudi – CIO, MTN Cameroon
3. Al Banda – Community Manager, ActivSpaces Cameroon
4. Edouard Tamba – Web Manager, Afriland First Bank Group
5. Joel Nlepe – Founder, 9Ideas Conference
6. Marcel Neutel – Investment Officer, Cenainvest
7. Bill Zimmerman – Co-Founder, Sanaga Ventures
8. Ben White – Co-Founder, Sanaga Ventures
9. Arnout Kroezen – Director of Finance, VC4Africa
10. Saskia Reus – Director of Investor Relations, VC4Africa
11. Mieke Langenberg – Regional Coordinator, LiveBuild
12. Raoul Kouamou – Financial Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Support Centers

The following support centers have agreed to open their doors to assist candidates with their business cases, sustainability plans, video pitches and so on:

1. ActivSpaces (Buea, Cameroon) Email: info@activspaces.com / Tel: +237 33323554
2. Jonathan Marks – Critical Distance Media Lab, video pitch coaching (Netherlands)
3. Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique de Yaoundé (Yaoundé, Cameroon)
4. Big Steps Outreach Network
5. DESA
6. AIESEC Cameroon
7. INFINITY-Space

Entrants are encouraged to contact these partners directly.

Contact Information

Bill Zimmerman, bill@sanagaventures.com
Twitter: @billzimmerman

Ben White, ben@sanagaventures.com
Twitter: @zia505

Media

High-resolution logos and a multimedia gallery available:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0oyuAnjwFqFMEE0d0NnOHBLcTA

Internet access is expanding rapidly across the continent, and with it new organizations are coming to help foster a budding tech startup scene.

This piece originally appeared in Fast Company: A New Silicon Valley? Tech Hubs Spring Up In Africa

When thinking of tech hubs, Africa doesn’t exactly spring to mind. But the continent has had some amazing spurts of open innovation, with 45 collaborative hubs now open.

Africa faces some hurdles in developing information technology. Even though global Internet penetration is about 32%, it’s lower in Africa, where only around 11% of the population have access to the Internet through a computer or mobile phone. Within the continent, too, there are enormous divides. While a country like Nigeria has 28% of its population online, Ethiopia has less than 1%. But all that is changing: Internet usage in Africa has grown faster than on any other continent over the past decade.

So what exactly do tech hubs do? In the African continent, they train, connect, and encourage innovation. Here’s a closer look:

MELTWATER ENTREPRENEURIAL SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY: GHANA
A nonprofit starts a school to train the next generation of tech entrepreneurs–and then funds their projects. Meltwater graduated its first 20 students in 2010 and 20 more last year. The graduates can then use seed funding of between $30,000 and $200,000 to develop software businesses that will reach both Ghanaian and global markets.

One example of a recent startup is Dropifi, a web messaging platform which helps companies better analyze, visualize, and respond to incoming messages from contacts. Last fall it took top honors at the Accra Startup Weekend.

ACTIVSPACES: CAMEROON
One of the first tech hubs in Sub-Saharan Africa, ActivSpaces serves to engineer socially responsible investment and the incubation of African small and medium-sized enterprises. One thing Cameroon has going for it? A ballooning population of young people–40% under the age of 15–many of whom are online and engaged.

One example of a project is Bisou, a motion-activated streetlamp. When motion is detected, the light comes on and a piece of music or a public service announcement can be played, helping out parts of cities that can’t afford to keep the lights on all the time, but want to reduce crime.

IHUB: KENYA
iHub just won $150,000 in funding from Google to expand its operations. Acting as a more traditional incubator, iHub seeks to connect entrepreneurs with funders. Membership is open and free to those who work in programming, design, or research, but different levels of membership open up different opportunities.

iHub supported the creation of M-Farm, a mobile-phone service that delivers real-time information to farmers on current market prices, weather alerts, and agro-supplies in their area. It also brings farmers together to buy or sell their products in groups, helping them to gain access to larger markets.
M-Farm enables farmers to carry out a cost-benefit analysis before deciding where to sell their products, with voice controls in both English and Swahili.

CO-CREATION HUB: NIGERIA
Co-Creation calls itself a pre-incubation space, where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures can take place. It recently launched Ideas 2020 a crowdsourced platform to gather citizens’ ideas to improve Nigeria ahead of the year 2020, when the country is expected to be one of the largest 20 economies in the world.

CcHub is supporting Budgit, an online platform that uses infographics to make the Nigerian government budget easier for citizens to read and understand. The platform was born out of the Hub’s training series, which focused on good governance. Budgit went live in September last year, posting 100,000 hits in its first month online.

And there are more on the way. A pilot program funded by Google in South Africa called Umbono has just started taking applications for its six-month fellowship, training entrepreneurs and then connecting them with funding sources.

We draw the inspiration for our identity from the Sanaga river, located in central Cameroon. Its most important headwaters — the Agoua and the Djérem — meet to form the Sanaga northwest of Bertoua. The river then flows southwest past Nanga-Eboko and Edéa, roughly bisecting Cameroon’s Atlantic coastline south of Douala.

The Sanaga river is a source of energy and vitality. Its waters support life, transportation and provides economic opportunity to the people living along its banks. In the context of investing in Africa, for us it represents a flow of ideas, capital and new possibilities.