Make-IT in Africa hosted the first Mentor Boot Camp of the second cohort at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. As part of the Make-IT Accelerator, a boot camp on mentoring was held in Nairobi with 16 business mentors and 16 entrepreneurs. During the one day event experts from Make-IT in Africa partners, such as VC4A, and Victoria Ventures, hosted expert sessions on mentorship, partnering with corporates, and angel investing. There was an specific emphasis on informal peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.

Between the 15th – 17th January 2019 Make-IT in Africa and Airbus BizLab kicked-off their joint accelerator program #africa4future.

The joint accelerator will support 10 African tech start-ups working on solutions related to unmanned logistics and remote sensing contributing to UN SDG #9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

On Thursday, November 29th, Village Capital and Make-IT in Africa held an investment-readiness training workshop at the Intercontinental Hotel Nairobi, Kenya.

Village Capital builds bridges for entrepreneurs who are creating an inclusive and sustainable world. Village capital programs connect high potential, early-stage entrepreneurs with the people, institutions, and capital they need to succeed.

On Wednesday the 7^th of November, Make-IT in Africa held an Online Payments Forum powered by Finserve Africa at Metta, Nairobi. The aim of the event was to take the attendants through an introduction of Fintech and an explanation of ways that they can manage and integrate payment systems into their business.

On Tuesday 30th October, The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Nairobi, Kenya together with its partners The Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Kenya, Make-IT in Africa and Metta Nairobi will host a masterclass ion Big Data for a Green Economy.

The session aims at providing a forum for discussing ways to utilise Big Data for sustainable development in Kenya and will include a welcome speech by Deputy Ambassador and Head of Economic Affairs Michael Derus.

On Thursday 25th October, VBAN and Make-IT in Africa hosted a ‘Deal Structuring and Valuation’ masterclass at Metta, Nairobi.

The masterclass hosted angel investors in the Nairobi ecosystem as well as a few Make-IT start-ups.

On Friday 28^th September 2018, Make-IT in Africa and VC4A hosted the 2^nd Mentorship Bootcamp at Strathmore University.

Start-up mentors from VC4A’s mentor network as well as start-ups from the Make-IT pool attended the boot camp.

From Friday 21st September to Sunday 23rd September Make-IT in Africa,  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Strathmore University @iLabAfrica, Agency for Business & Economic Development (AWE) and the Make-IT Alliance members IBM and SAP SE held the Digital 4 Africa Weather Weekend Indaba at Strathmore University.

The event involved an excursion to Upper Matasia, Ngong where attendees visited 5 small-scale farmers involved in various farming practices.

On Friday 7th September 2018, Make-IT in Africa and IBM hosted a Design Thinking Masterclass at the IBM Innovation Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

The aim of the masterclass was to formulate the use cases for the Digital 4 Agriculture Weather Weekend which took place from the 21st tp the 23rd of September 2018.

On Thursday 30th August 2018, Make-IT in Africa and I-Dev International, organised the Investor Mentoring session at the 2018 CAPEX ‘Championing the African Professional Experience’ Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The conference took place at Crowne Plaza Hotel and hosted over 200 individuals from various companies .

Make-IT provided 14 start-ups to attend the mentoring session where they received advice from investor-mentors.      

On Monday 20th August, Mowgli Mentoring powered by Make-IT in Africa held a mentoring session at co-working space, Nairobi Garage in Nairobi, Kenya.

The event was centred on highlighting the benefits of 360-degree mentoring both for mentors and mentees. 360-degree mentorship refers to mentoring from all angles and networks. Rather than traditional mentoring characterised by one on one mentoring from an older or more advanced individual, 360-degree mentorship utilises all networks to ensure all-encompassing mentoring.

develop.

Make-IT in Africa partners with EarlyBird Ventures to deliver a
masterclass on Storytelling for business.

Join us at Metta, Riverside Drive, Nairobi Kenya this Friday 10th August from 10:00am-15:00pm.

Goal and Outcomes
Make-IT in Africa partners with EarlyBird Ventures to deliver a masterclass on Storytelling for business to achieve the following outcomes:

1. Start-ups understand Storytelling for messaging, branding, and pitching.
2. Corporates, Start-ups, and NGO’s understand the importance of storytelling for business.
3. Network building among corporates, start-ups and NGO’s.

Facilitation

Peter Ngunyi – Founder and CEO, EarlyBird Ventures
Mutembei Kariuki – GIZ Regional Coordinator, Make-IT in East Africa

Day 1 // August 10th 2018

10:00 Registration

10:20 Welcome // Peter Ngunyi Founder and CEO, EarlyBird
Ventures, Cherie Kihato, GIZ-Make-IT in Africa

10:30 Storytelling for Business – Peter Ngunyi

– The importance of storytelling and pitching
– How to tell business stories
– Who should be telling your business story

12:30 Lunch

13:15 Storytelling for Business continued

-Who are the best storytellers of our time
– How to cater your business story to different audiences
– Storytelling using Social Media, News, and Branding

15:00 Closing remarks + Networking

On Friday 27^th June 2018, Make-IT in Africa in collaboration with Liquid Telecom held a masterclass on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Nairobi Garage, Ngong road in Nairobi, Kenya.

Data Science is defined as the scientific study of where information comes from, how it is extracted, what it can be used for among other things. Artificial Intelligence is the development of computer programs which undertake tasks which usually require human intelligence.

We started the event with welcoming remarks from Oswald Jumira, Group Head of Innovation Partnerships at Liquid Telecom and Mutembei Kariuki, Regional Coordinator Make-IT in Africa where the various Make-IT projects and events were highlighted.

The day was segmented into different topics, with expert speakers explaining the ways Data Science and AI are used within and affect them. These were Skills, Technology, GDPR, IP, Fintech, Insuretech, IOT, EdTech and Health. The segments were interactive with audience members chiming in with questions or comments.

We were joined by around 60 start-ups, NGO and corporate representatives. The event ran from 8:30am to 17:30am.

On Friday 20th July 2018, Make-IT in Africa and two start-ups from the Make-IT accelerator program attended the Kenya-Korea Business Forum at Villa Rosa Kempinski, Nairobi.

The event, organised by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) was centred on forming linkages between Kenyan and Korean partners, showcasing what Korean companies and start-ups are doing in Korea and highlighting the collaboration between the two countries in industries such as Healthcare and Housing.

On Tuesday 17^th July 2018, two start-ups from our Accelerator Program, Micrive Infinite and Taimba, as well as one start-up from our start-up pool, InteliVec, attended a meeting with the German State Minister of Digitalisation Mrs. Dorothee Bär at iHub in Nairobi, Kenya.

The meeting was held in order to highlight the different ways digitalisation is being implemented in Kenya.

Make-IT in Africa hosted the Mentor Boot Camp at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. As part of the Make-IT Accelerator, a boot camp on mentoring was held in Nairobi with 17 business mentors and 9 entrepreneurs. During the one day event experts from Make-IT in Africa partners, such as VC4A, and Victoria Ventures, conducted trainings, role-playing games and various exercises for the mentors. In the second half of the day the mentees (entrepreneurs) joined their assigned mentors for bilateral exchange.

Make-IT in Africa hosted the Make-IT Lounge on the 21^st of June 2018 at the Mövenpick Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Make-IT Lounge was part of the Alumniportal Career Fair, organized by the Delegation of German Commerce and Industry in Kenya. The event offered an exclusive access to German employers and German educational institutions. The event was aimed primarily at people who, had studied, worked or did research in a German institution. The focus laid also on those who completed a German training programme or a language course. The Make-IT Lounge was centred around the three Make-IT in Africa key words, ‘inspire, connect, develop’ and included three segments.

On May 31st 2018, Make-IT in Africa supported 10 start-ups to attend and exhibit at this year’s Finnovation Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The event was centred on the progress of Fintech innovation and the positive transformation of banking in Africa. Five of the ten start-ups also took part in the Wolves’ den segment of the event where they had to pitch to a panel of esteemed judges for a chance to win consultation from Chandaria Capital.

From April 16 to 20, 2018 the Make-IT in Africa Transition Days took place in Nairobi.

One highlight for tech entrepreneurs from East Africa was the Demo Day on Friday, 20 April 2018, hosted by Nailab.

The Demo Day marks the start-ups’ transition to the second phase (corporate connect stage, led by AHK, VC4A and Viktoria Ventures) of the Make-IT Accelerator program.

In the second phase, the focus will be on B2B matchmaking and mentorship. The sessions on Friday were facilitated by Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A) and the German Delegation for Industry and Commerce in Nigeria (AHK). VC4A will be identifying sector and business-specific mentors for each startup and AHK will utilize the information gathered from the needs assessment they conducted, to identify meaningful business partnerships for each start-up.