Africa Tech Festival on Friday, October 27 named the top ten finalist startups for AfricaIgnite Pitch Competition.
The Startups will battle it out to win the opportunity to represent the African continent. The winner will participate in the Startup World Cup in San Francisco, US on 1st December
The AfricaIgnite Pitch Competition will take place at Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town from 14 – 16 November. The final will bring together founders, tech leaders and investors to witness who will represent Africa in the US.
The announcement was first made by James Williams the Senior Director for Events Connecting Africa Informa Tech.
“Congratulations to everyone who entered. We called for the continent’s brightest, most inspiring founders to apply . This is also important in helping to build the African innovation ecosystem and they certainly delivered,” James stated.
At the same time, James also praised Africa’s talent and the abundant potential represented by the finalists during the competition.
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The top 10 finalists will prove it to be a difficult task in selecting one representative of the African Continent.
The top ten looking to win the AfricaIgnite Pitch Competition Final are:
- AsaanaPay – a payments and rewards platform for minority owned businesses. It enables offline and online payments and unrestricted cash back rewards to attract and retain customers.
2. Tausi App – An app that connects beauticians to clients. It provides professional hair and make-up and other services to make clients feel fabulous. At the same time, it also provides a rating system and in-depth onboarding process that is simple to use.
3. Bus54 – Based in Nigeria, Bus54 is a mobility technology company providing a platform to aggregate intercity bus transportation in Africa as well as allowing passengers to search, compare, book, and manage their journeys online.
4. Delta Scan – a specialist engineering inspection, digitisation and BIM company based in South Africa. It digitizes the world around us to create powerful analytical 3D models to extract engineering value.
5. Oneway Connect – it is a cutting-edge job matching and recruitment software. However, it also prioritizes cultural alignment that is shaping the future of hiring.
6. Ukwenza VR – a social enterprise based in Kenya. It focuses on creating educational Virtual Reality (VR) content. Similarly, this is important in complementing classroom learning and offer additional learning on social and environmental issues e.g. conservation and plastic pollution.
7. Hippocampus Education – Hippocampus is an adaptive tutoring Facebook Messenger bot that provides differentiated instruction as well as instant feedback that is customized to meet each individual’s learning needs.
8. BenaCare – a Kenyan based social enterprise that delivers affordable clinical and supportive care to patients with life limiting illnesses at the comfort of their own homes.
9. Gradlinc – more than a matchmaker between graduate and employer and vice versa. It helps prepare graduates for the workplace from helping with CVs to creating personal brands and is free to graduates.
10. Kyanda Africa – Although this is seamless payment solutions with easy financial reach based in Nairobi. It provides safe and easy access to financial and related services simultaneously in an affordable, efficient, and transparent manner for all at all times.
AfricaIgnite Pitch Competition
Consequently, the top 10 selected start ups will be required to demonstrate the market in which they are looking to play or are active.
Providing insights into judgement, Keshni Morar of Investable, one of the Judges stated that they will be looking for the granular detail in the presentation.
“Like every other serious investor out there, I look for the coherence between the pitch story and the data points,” Keshni Morar stated.
At the same time, Judges will also look at a demonstrable understanding of the market.
About Startup World Cup
She also stated that the depth of the market strategy will also be looked at, as well as those start-ups that are at pre-seed capital.
The Startup World Cup is a global conference and competition with the goal of bridging start-up ecosystems worldwide.
The competition currently gives start-up companies from all over the world a chance to win a $1,000,000 million prize in the form of an investment.
Moreso, this year, there will be over 50 regional events across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The event’s will lead up to the Grand Finale in San Francisco, US in September next year.
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About Africa Tech Festival 2023
Africa Tech Festival, including anchor events AfricaCom, AfricaTech and AfricaIgnite are part of the Informa Tech Connecting Africa event series.
Presently, it is the largest tech and digital connectivity conference and exhibition in Africa.
The Key themes for 2023 continue to explore the creation and sustainability of a connected Africa. They include commercial prospects, local and global businesses and governments.
Africa Tech Festival topics for discussion will include Telcos of Tomorrow and Connecting the Next Billion among others.
Africa Tech Festival also incorporates the Africa Tech Festival Awards which is also an exclusive ceremony for celebrating Africa’s tech pioneers
Moreover, it also feature’s an exclusive, VIP leaders-only offering high-level presentations. It also provides a roundtable discussions to Africa’s tech elite.