Future e-commerce trends from Singapore-based Redmart founder
I do love to network at tech events, and I also do love to sit down and listen when it’s worth, at Echelon, I’m rarely disappointed. The morning session on the Future of e-commerce, by Singapore online grocery store Redmart founder Roger Egan proved insightful, making both a synthesis of all what’s been happening recently […]
Not your everyday hackathon: how we made a boat in one day with Protei in Hong Kong
To be honest, when I knew about this hackathon, I had mixed feelings. I have attended many hackathons in France and in Singapore this year, and as a non-developer, I just felt my contributions were minimal, it’s hard to gather a team and speak the same language with designers and tech people, and, well, as […]
Shenzhen startup scene: welcome to the world capital of makers
If you were waiting for a sign that China has changed and is an amazing huge thing adapting to the new industrial revolution, there you go. Take what was a fishing village 30 years ago, with 200-300 000 inhabitants. Create a special economic zone to attract migrants from all over the country. Make it […]
E-commerce in Nigeria: how Rocket Internet's Jumia, Kaymu and Jovago are taking over Africa's biggest market
If Nigeria is “Africa’s India”, it’s for the sheer size of the market – 170m people now, 440m by 2050 – and because with a GDP growing between 4.5 and 9% each year over the past decade, there is now a small but growing part of the population able to buy online, to travel, and […]
In Nigeria, forget Facebook, 2go and Eskimi are the two social mobile networks that matter
We all saw these world maps of social media, where each country has the color of its main platform: Facebook in all western countries and much more, Qzone in China, and a few local resistants such as VKontakte in Russia. For the main tech giants, such as Google, Facebook or Amazon, the race is fierce to […]
Solo Phone: the Nigerian smartphone that gets rid of the data issue
Data consumption for mobile internet access is everywhere a hot topic, but even more in emerging markets where the infrastructure is either in bad shape or almost inexistant. Rather than waiting for Facebook or Google to deploy a high-speed internet with the help of solar drones or balloons respectively, local manufacturers try to find other […]
Hong Kong tech hub: where finance & manufacture turn into startups
Hong Kong is better known for its financial expertise and culture of manufacturing than its startups. However, a generation of bored bankers and veterans of the factories are becoming the first generation of tech entrepreneurs in “Asia’s New York”. What is the position of Hong Kong as an innovation ecosystem? What are the links with […]
Iran startup Shafajoo helps get rid of fake doctors
During our trip to Iran, we met the founders of Shafajoo.com, a local startup based in Tehran. Shafajoo means “health/cure finder” in Persian and their goal is to improve healthcare access across Iran by providing a user-friendly platform that enables patients to search and book appointments with their preferred healthcare providers in a few simple […]
A demo day in Nairobi, Kenya: local innovation rules
During the Afrikoin conference in Nairobi, we were lucky to attend the Demo Day of the Savannah Fund, a Kenya-based VC betting on startups all over Africa. Since a picture is often worth a thousand words, I’ll leave you to browse this Slideshare documenting the exciting ideas presented at Demo Day. Encouragingly, the startups are all focusing on local needs and […]
MOHSEN MALAYERI WANTS TO RE-EDUCATE IRAN'S ENTREPRENEURS
Mohsen is a startup enthusiast. He loves community and entrepreneurship. He founded a startup awhile ago and is now helping the youth in Iran practice entrepreneurship. Mohsen is now the local organizer and global facilitator of StartupWeekend, and the vice president of Iran Entrepreneurship Association. Can you introduce yourself? What projects are you working […]
