Hey developers! Reckon you’ve got a killer way of bringing people together online? AfriLabs, the organisation which represents some 35 of the continent’s biggest and best tech hubs, just launched a $15 000 (R168 000) bounty looking for teams to come up with ways of improving collaboration amongst African innovators.

Director of AfriLabs Tayo Akinyemi says that while tech hubs are currently doing well at generating ideas and apps for social impact, in order to be sustainable in the long term they also need to produce businesses that are commercially viable – and many are struggling with this. The idea behind this competition is to find ways of sharing skills and experiences between successful hubs, like iHub or Nailab, and those which are struggling.

The funding for the competition is being provided by Microsoft through it’s 4Afrika project, and it will also be offering the successful team engineering support and mentorship. It’s only open to hub members, however – which means signing up for the likes of JoziHub or RLabs in South Africa.

In order to spread its pan-African message of techno-innovation, AfriLabs is also working on a ‘hub in a box’ concept to provide materials that will help new hubs get started quickly.