A bus with developers, designers and business people is going on a five day African hackathon journey, stretching over 2500 km between Harare and Cape Town, to build and launch startups.

Dubbed ‘StartupBus Africa’, the voluntary non-profit project is described as the first initiative of its kind southern Africa.

The five-day journey kicks off on 17 November for 30 chosen participants who are expected to conceive, build and launch startups during the drive. Half of the participants are from Africa while the rest come from other parts of the globe.

StartupBus Africa has also committed to having 30% women on board, in a bid to boost female entrepreneurship.

The drive is planned to have three main stops in Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Cape Town. Each stop is further expected to include visits to some of the StartupBus location partners, which includes the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, Seed Engine, eKasi Entrepreneurs, 88mph and Bandwidth Barn.

Participants in turn are to get the opportunity to interact and learn from some of the location’s prominent entrepreneurs.

Finally, upon reaching Cape Town, they will pitch their prototypes in front of a jury comprising of technology chief executive officers and venture capitalists.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Hypercube Hub, which is launching in November, says it is one of the StartupBus Africa location partners.

Hypercube Hub says that it, together with the Zimbabwean Technology Hub, will be launching a series of activities to the community on 13 of November as part of the StartupBus Africa launch week,

Also, Hypercube in a statement says it will be hosting the StartupBus kick-off event on Sunday, 17 November.

The event will be centered on the role of technology in the growth and development of Zimbabwe, says Hypercube

Panel speakers and participants from sectors such as health, education, energy, mobile technology, agriculture, industry and business and technology will be there says Hypercube..

“The event is aimed at giving the StartupBus participants an insight into some of the issues affecting the various sectors,” says Hypercube in a statement.

Anyone wishing to help support StartupBus Africa can contribute to their crowd-funding campaign on the Indiegogo website.

To date, the StartupBus Africa initiative has raised 5,577 Euros (approximately $7 700 or R75 582).