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Airbuy helps entrepreneurs set up online presence

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 15 Apr 2020

Local fintech start-up Airbuy is offering free online workshops to help entrepreneurs and start-ups establish an online presence during the national lockdown.

Airbuy is an online payment platform that allows African consumers to make payments online, without the use of a credit or debit card, avoiding the risk of exposing their personal bank details.

The start-up uses digital tokens known as Airbucks, which allow users to make safe payments on its partner e-commerce sites.

As SA enters day 20 of the nation-wide lockdown, most South African businesses have halted operations, which is expected to result in a blow to the country’s already fragile economy. Entrepreneurs are looking at technology to offer them innovative ways to continue productivity during this period of uncertainty.

Airbuy will work with start-ups to help them build their online stores through virtual technical workshops offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Activate.

AWS Activate provides start-ups with easy-to-use infrastructure needed to scale and grow their businesses, including credits, technical support and training.

“The national lockdown has impacted many small and medium businesses (SMBs) across the country and now, more than ever, having a digital presence is crucial for SMBs,” says Njabulo Makhathini, Airbuy co-founder.

“Working with AWS has allowed us to accelerate our efforts to enable the digital transformation of start-ups and entrepreneurs, and assist our customers with their journey to the cloud.”

In 2018, Airbuy secured development support from AWS worth R180 000, which provided it with access to AWS's advanced development technology and tools. This includes cloud storage, data analysis reports and backup recovery technologies, enabling the start-up to advance the services it offers to its e-commerce clients.

According to Airbuy, the online workshops offer entrepreneurs a detailed step-by-step approach to setting up an online business, from inception to launch, and provides AWS services that will enable them to flourish even after the national lockdown.

Airbuy is also inviting private and public sector organisations to partner with the start-up, in the empowerment of small companies.

The sessions will be facilitated from 20 April at 10am. Entrepreneurs interested in taking part in the workshops can register here.

 For more information, entrepreneurs can send an e-mail to: info@airbuy.africa.

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