Category Archives: Startups

startups

Startupbootcamp AfriTech pilots $7m Gates Foundation program to uplift South African HealthTech startups

In recent years, African HealthTech has recorded impressive growth, as the majority of Africans rely on under-funded public health facilities while a small minority have access to well-funded, quality private health care.  It is a reality that across much of Africa, health systems suffer from serious inefficiencies and are widely inaccessible, and this was exasperated […]

Now in South Africa, the AfyaRekod Universal Patient Portal is empowering patients to take charge of their healthcare

AfyaRekod has launched the fully automated Universal Patient Portal in South Africa and it is ready to change the face of patient care across the country, Africa, and the world.  Using block-chain driven technology the Universal Patient Portal is a secure central, mobile platform where patients and the medical professionals treating them have real-time access […]

The Struggles of Content Creators – A Founder’s Viewpoint

By Kayode Adebayo From a hobby to a big-time career, content creation has become a vital part of the social media marketing that few people envisaged. The art of content creation transcends location, age, race or identity, yet it relies on these and more, for it to be impactful. As consumers of content, it is […]

Angel investors plugging the early-stage funding gap in sub-Saharan Africa

Alexandra Fraser One of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurial start-ups in sub-Saharan Africa is funding – particularly early-stage financial support – even though the landscape across the region has evolved over the past few years with more funders and capital deployed in this space. This has been driven primarily by a growing appetite for alternative […]

African health tech start-ups in supply chain show promise, prompting launch of $7 million innovator support program

The Pan-African “Investing in Innovation” program will provide grants and commercialization support to 60 healthtech companies over two years. Healthcare consulting firm Salient Advisory has launched its latest market intelligence report highlighting promising African healthtech start-ups in supply chain. Spurred by these findings, a consortium of global and continental organizations, with funding from Bill and […]

Understanding the Metaverse – Africa’s role

By Balkissa Ide Siddo, Director of Public Policy, Africa, Meta Since the start of the twenty-first century, technology has been at the heart of enhancing communication and human contact. The internet has not only enabled people to communicate with family and friends all over the world in real time, but powered businesses and creativity across the […]

Four Game-Changing Tech Startups from Africa

According to the 2021 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome, Africa’s startup ecosystem is currently valued at $6.6 billion, with Cape Town, Lagos, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Accra named as the leading regions for startup growth on the continent There are plenty of game-changing startups bubbling up across the continent – here are four making […]

Healthtech startup Zuri Health receives funding to expand across Africa

Zuri Health, the digital healthcare company which provides affordable healthcare via mobile, has completed a funding round attracting investment from DOB Equity, Launch Africa and Founders Factory Africa to expand across Africa. Zuri Health connects mass-market patients with affordable, convenient, and quality healthcare services via SMS, WhatsApp and a dedicated app. The company initially launched […]

Call for applications: the Social & Inclusive Business Camp opens its doors to African entrepreneurs for the 6th year running

The Social & Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC) has begun searching for its 6th cohort of African entrepreneurs. Leaders of developing, high-impact companies on the continent have until June 26 to apply for a place on the SIBC 2022! The Social & Inclusive Business Camp has become the unmissable event for high-impact African entrepreneurs and will soon […]

Startups can drive economic development in South Africa, but these are the tools they need

Adbot is empowering Pre-Seed and Seed startups to access new markets South Africa’s economy is driven by small businesses, which are expected to have created around 90% of all new jobs by 2030[1]. Many of these jobs are likely to be created by start-ups, new businesses that scale quickly and add significant economic value. But […]

New Technologies to Enhance Customer Engagement

The Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been the catalyst to drive broad-based digitisation and spearhead the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). This digital revolution is reshaping consumer behaviour and creating opportunities for innovative new digital communications tools to attract and drive greater customer engagement.  Across industries – corporate, finance, retail, technology, healthcare, education, and others – today’s […]

Kippa launches new digital payments product for SMEs in Africa

 Kippa, the fast-growing fintech start-up offering digital business and financial management solutions for SMEs in Africa, today announces the launch of its second product, ‘Kippa Payments’, a digital payments solution enabling users to send and receive payments from customers and perform extended payments transactions automatically. Kippa Payments, which will be available to access within the […]

Flow wins Best Late-Stage Startup at AfricArena Awards

Gil Sperling and Daniel Levy Flow

South African proptech leader Flow has won the Best Late-Stage Startup award at the 2022 AfricArena Summit, held in Johannesburg last week. The summit was a side event to the South African President Investment Conference and supported by the Technology Innovation Agency and VC firm Edge Growth. Over 140 in-person attendees and more than 1 […]

Tushop Raises $3M to Scale Community Group-Buying in Kenya

Tushop, the Kenyan social-commerce platform that enables communities in Nairobi to buy groceries more cheaply with free delivery, has secured $3M in a pre-seed funding round, led by 4DX Ventures and with participation from JAM Fund, Breyer Capital, Chandaria Capital, TO Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, FirstCheck Africa, and DFS Lab. Wasoko (formerly Sokowatch) also joined […]

New fund targets Early Stage AI Tech Start-ups in Africa

The Swedish AI Fund (SAIF) is an NGO with the purpose of providing financial aid, grants, and scholarships globally to those who are working, researching, and/or involved in the AI industry towards equality, safety, and security in the field of AI. To achieve this end, several public and private actors are collaborating in SAIF.  In […]

Why SMME shaming leads to an investment mismatch

Recent articles on fund-raising activities in Africa paint the picture that capital is abundant and readily available. The first seven weeks of this year have seen continued high investment levels, with start-ups raising over $1 billion through 130 deals. This creates incredible optimism for many, signalling a new investment era for businesses across the African continent. […]

Announcing Winners of the 9th Edition of the Sankalp Africa Summit Awards 2022

Over 2,000 delegates is convening for the Sankalp Africa Summit, a hybrid 3 Day Virtual and a 1 Day In-Person event on ‘Mainstreaming Impact’ Sankalp Forum, an initiative of Intellecap, is hosting its 9th Edition of the Sankalp Africa Summit, one of Africa’s largest inclusive networking platforms focussed on entrepreneurship and the impact investing ecosystem, […]

CREATING AFRICAN SUCCESS STORIES: Harnessing the opportunities offered by accelerators to fast-track African entrepreneurs

African startups face various challenges – from raising funds to securing their first contracts. And for more than half of African startups[1], these challenges will be insurmountable. But for one startup working on the continent, a pan-African Accelerator Programme has unlocked both seed funding and long-term contracts. When Stephan Eyeson, CEO and Co-Founder of Survey54, joined Startupbootcamp […]

3 trends set to dominate African mobile apps in 2022

In 2021, the mobile industry in sub-saharan Africa continued to show incredible resilience against the impacts of Covid-19 and experienced high growth. Digital solutions have provided instrumental support for communities and businesses, boosting their transition into adopting a mobile-first approach to tackle most of the daily challenges across the continent, with fintech applications dominating this […]

Policy Reforms Essential for Creating an Enabling Environment for Entrepreneurs

Faster economic growth requires determined implementation of policy reforms to promote confidence, investment, competitiveness, entrepreneurship and job creationi. This is according to the recently delivered Medium Term Budget Policy Statement.    With this in mind, Matsi Modise, Chairperson of the South African Startup Act Steering Committee and Vice-Chairperson of SiMODiSA, together with Steering Committee members Tanya van […]

Make a success of sustainability: An innovative incubator aimed at equipping entrepreneurs to build the green economy

According to a recent study by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), transitioning to a more circular economy can create value across all sectors of the economy. The circular economy promotes sustainability, and the sector consists of businesses that focus on eliminating waste, leading to improved efficiency and greater profit margins. Sixty-five entrepreneurs will […]

Why the sector is fertile ground for South African entrepreneurs

By Catherine Wijnberg, CEO of Fetola South Africa needs entrepreneurs to reverse our shrinking economy and high unemployment rate. And while they face numerous barriers in almost every sector, there is one industry that offers them the key to success: The circular economy. Only about 1% of micro-enterprises[1] in South Africa, starting with one to five […]