• We are now a billion dollar company, says clone factory Rocket Internet

    Germany headquartered Rocket Internet, notorious for shamelessly cloning successful startups, announced today via a press release that they are are now a billion dollar company. The release says the company has, since May 2012, managed to raise a total of $500 million from Investment AB Kinnevik and Access Industries.

  • Guide to online shopping in Zimbabwe: the introduction

    Ever since the introduction of the multiple currency system in Zimbabwe, online shopping has become somewhat simpler. Hitherto problems like obtaining an internationally accepted Visa/ MasterCard, hyperinflation and limited internet connections had hampered the widespread adoption of e-commerce.

  • Culture Shift Zimbabwe – the winning teams

    Today was the final day of the Culture Shift Zimbabwe challenge. After a two day long hackathon of refining their ideas, writing code and finally pitching their ideas this morning, 3 out of the participating 6 teams were selected winners and will be further developing their solutions with the assistance of the British Council.

  • Pay4App uses EcoCash for hybrid internet and mobile payment service

    Remember the UZ student who developed an EcoCash internet payments proof of concept last year? Well, he’s since joined a startup that’s doing exactly that – facilitating internet payments via EcoCash.

  • The Google Tax: is it justified?

    The internet has been described as a global system of interconnected computer networks that makes use a suite of protocols to serve billions of users worldwide.

  • You don’t need to be an engineer to start a technology business

    Gary Shayne who founded Cellular Systems, later renamed Celsys, which he listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange when he was only 27 years old and went on to sell to Lonrho was a chartered accountant, and not a telecommunications engineer. Sure there were many telecommunications engineers who knew telecommunications, and who could boast more experience…

  • Press Release: Freelancer announces fastest growing Internet jobs

    Freelancer.com, the world’s largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace, has announced the fastest growing Internet jobs between October and December 2012. With nearly 7 million members and over $1 billion worth of work posted on the site, Freelancer.com is the foremost authority on the online job trends spanning over 234 countries and regions.

  • 5 tech initiatives we would love to see in Zimbabwe in 2013

    Open data would enable accountability: it is difficult to conceal something if the facts are there for all to see. Not only will it result in transparency, just Data alone in the right hands is a powerful resource for our national economic and social development. It’s also an incredible opportunity for local talent to build…

  • 2012 roundup: The year in review

    The year kicked off with one of the largest ISPs in Zimbabwe ZOL, announcing that it had been acquired by Liquid Telecom, a move which resulted in the Econet Wireless Group cementing its position as Zimbabwe’s largest telecoms firm.

  • Some noteworthy discussion points from the ePayments Forum

    As party of the ongoing discussion following the ePayments Forum that was held exactly two weeks ago, we’ve decided to post here the main issues that came out of the event. You can read more about the event itself on the sub site dedicated for the event here: epayments.techzim.co.zw

  • Webdev prepares to launch Vpayments integrated hosted shopping cart

    About 2 months ago, in line with the new strategic direction for the company, Webdev introduced a hosted cart solution. According to the founder, Garth Drummond, the company is gradually moving away from the usual website development work that has been their work for more than 10 years now into hosted web solutions and the…

  • #263Chat: Tweets on tech and tech entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe

    Earlier this week I was guest on the weekly #263Chat discussion hosted by Nigel Mugamu where the discussion was centered on tech in Zimbabwe; the state of, the challenges, possible solutions, opportunities, funding for entrepreneurs and other issues. #263Chat is a really interesting way to have a realtime virtual gathering and discuss important common issues.…

  • Everything you need to know about Zimswitch’s Vpayments gateway

    Zimswitch, a national switching company recently introduced an internet payment gateway service called Vpayments. Being a financial switch basically means they provider interconnection between their member banks. Zimswitch member banks account for about 95% of the 1.5 million banked population in Zimbabwe. After hyperinflation and dollarisation, many Zimbabweans moved away from the banks, but now…

  • Mobile operators need to build online marketplaces

    There are two main problems facing anyone who wants to conduct business online,  namely: Payments and Distribution. The payment problem When one needs to make online transactions, they must to have […]

  • Event report: ZOL Jumpstart Challenge & BarCamp Zimbabwe 2012

    So we kept pushing forward an article about how BarCamp Zimbabwe 2012 and the two rounds of the ZOL Jumpstart Challenge went, but we have received enough emails reminding us […]

  • Zimbabwe is more than ready for e-commerce and online shopping

    This guest article was authored by Prosper Chikomo, an internet entrepreneur and author of Turning Iron into Gold: Golden Opportunities: How to Spot Them, Create Them, Make Money from Them, and […]

  • Econet’s move to Comviva to give Zimbabwe e-commerce jetpacks

    This guest article was authored by Prosper Chikomo, an internet entrepreneur and author of Turning Iron into Gold: Golden Opportunities: How to Spot Them, Create Them, Make Money from Them, and […]

  • Disruptive Charity: Harnessing the power of the crowd to solve social problems

    This guest article was authored by Jeff T. Chivheya, a Free Culture Activist who participates in Zimbabwe’s Open Source Movement. His passion is the intersection of science, technology and the humanities. […]

  • Africa: The era of collaborative consumption has arrived

    A new wave is sweeping across developed countries and can make a big impact in Africa. For those who thought group buying was the last big goldmine in ecommerce, collaborative consumption has triggered a new and sustainable rush. In a world struggling to recover from a rough economic patch and more importantly with waste and…

  • Our information technology predictions for 2012

    Another exciting year in information technologies lies ahead with a lot of promise for the continued growth of the sector. Below, we provide our thoughts on what we think 2012 holds. It would be great to know what you the reader think in the comments.

  • Eco-cash:Opportunities for Zimbabwe’s technology entrepreneurs

    The announcement that Econet will be launching Eco-cash, a mobile payment solution is good news for the country. This will bring in new opportunities for technology entrepreneurs if the service takes off. We have to start thinking about businesses that will run on the platform. I will share some of the businesses that could be…

  • The Prime Minister’s Opening Address At 2009 ICT Africa Exhibition

    We can’t upload a 10 minute long video speech here due to bandwidth limitations so we posted the MP3 version of Morgan Tsvangirai’s address at the opening of the 2009 […]