DEMO Africa Applications Deadline Extended to June 22

DEMO Africa, the African startup launchpad, has announced it is extending the application deadline by one week. The deadline was previously set at Sunday, June 15, but has now been extended to Sunday June 22, 2014. The extension came by, as a result, of numerous start-ups requesting for more time in order to comply with the DEMO Africa application expectations.

DEMO Africa, Executive Producer, Harry Hare said, “From experiences, there is always a last minute rush by start-ups to comply. By extending the deadline, we want to give more time for innovators to ensure that their efforts do not go to waste, thereby boosting their confidence which is what we are about.”

According to Hare, the deadline extension is meant to allow more start-ups that for a while have been trying to register for the event but for one reason or another had not yet managed to follow the registration guideline successfully. So the one week extension is expected to ensure that no start-up is locked out because of application guidelines technicality or at least minimize such incidences.

The move by DEMO Africa, to extend the application deadline has received backing from Ben White, Founder of VC4Africa, who had the following to say. “It’s always thrilling to see how hard entrepreneurs work on their application and the jury has a tough job ahead of them. That said, many entrepreneurs have asked for more time to put their best foot forward. It’s a great opportunity for entrepreneurs on the sidelines to still get their hat in the ring, but they are going to have to move fast.”

For more details on the requirements to register for the DEMO Africa 2014, click here. The deadline extension comes at a time when DEMO Africa is winding up its Innovation tours 2014. The tours concluded in Lagos, Nigeria at the iDEA hub. The tour took DEMO Africa team through a number of African countries that include Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Ghana.

The tour gave the team a chance to meet African start-ups coming from all walks of life and give them the opportunity to coach the start-ups on the best approach for the DEMO Africa 2014 applications. The DEMO Africa event will take place on September 22^nd to 26^th at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria. The event will be marked with the selection of the Top 40 Finalists whose start-up idea illustrates innovation, creativity, scalability and effectiveness.

Panel members will be released on the first week of July; Hare has assured that the panellists will have representatives from across the African continent. The top 40 start-ups will be given the opportunity to launch their products before an ecosystem of investors, tech acquisition specialists, VCs, IT buyers and various media from Africa and the world at large.