London, UK and New York - 1st August 2013 – The global enterprise tech startups awards, The Tech Trailblazers (@techtrailblaze) today announced a partnership with AfriLabs (@Afrilabs), a pan-African network of technology and innovation hubs promoting the growth and development of the African technology sector. AfriLabs believe that by working together, individual labs improve the chances of success and create greater opportunities for its members.

With 20 accelerators and hubs in 13 countries across Africa and an active social media following, AfriLabs is the largest tech hub network in Africa and in the perfect position to support a partnership that reaches across multiple countries on the continent.

As part of the partnership with the Tech Trailblazers Awards, AfriLabs is now able to offer its members a chance to gain visibility with some of the technology industry’s most influential people across the world via the judging panel, as well offering the platform for them to compete in a globally recognised enterprise technology competition, with categories including cloud, mobile, info security, big data, virtualisation, networking, storage, sustainable IT and emerging markets.  In addition, all African entrants will be automatically entered for the Middle East and Africa Cup.

AfriLabs Director Tayo Akinyemi said about the partnership, “Partnering with the Tech Trailblazers Awards is a great opportunity for AfriLabs to enable its network members to be rewarded for their innovation. Making new connections with the judging network, having the chance to win great sponsor prizes and receiving visibility on an international scale is very exciting.”

Rose Ross, Founder and Chief Trailblazer said, “Being able to reach into Africa and bring their finest in enterprise technology to a global platform is going to be a great experience and it will be interesting to see how they compare with all the other entrants from around the world.”

The new African partnerships add to the collaboration with Silicon Cape, Ventureburn and Tech News. The Tech Trailblazers Awards is open to entries until September 12th 2013.

Tweet: .@Afrilabs calling all African enterprise tech startups: Enter the Tech Trailblazers #Awards @techtrailblaze www.techtrailblazers.com  [132 characters including spaces]