South African university to bring SLUSH to Johannesburg

South Africa’s University of Johannesburg (UJ) is “exploring an agreement” to bring SLUSH, Europe’s leading startup and technology event, to Johannesburg to help entrepreneurs seek funding and further development for their businesses.

This was announced by UJ’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ihron Rensburg at the signing of a partnership agreement with Finnish university, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, on January 31 in Auckland Park.

SLUSH is held at the end of November each year and sees thousands of young entrepreneurs, many from Laurea University, pitch their startups to venture capitalists.

UJ wants the exact same experience for its students and entrepreneurs in Johannesburg.

“UJ is exploring an agreement to bring this event to Johannesburg. For an entrepreneur, going from a working concept to a viable business is a huge challenge. We want to see young people from across Africa present their startups to venture capital and angel capital, and qualify for funding to get their businesses up and running. We hope to start with South African youth entrepreneurs and go from there,” said Prof Rensburg.

The aforementioned partnership will see Laurea University assist UJ in its quest to incubate thousands of new youth-driven businesses in the technology sector in the next few years.

This will result in student exchange programmes, and Research and Development work between both universities. Also, there’s the possibility of funding from the European Union.

The end goal is for UJ’s students and other young people to become business/job creators, adding immense value to the local economy.

UJ Council Chairperson, Prof Marcus said, “Laurea offers UJ the opportunity to create collaborations, not only between our universities, but also between South African and Finnish businesses, which is a very exciting aspect of this relationship.”