African startups Archives - Page 4 of 7

Sentech Africa Tech Week 2022: Connecting Africa for a Digital Future

15Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

Sentech Africa Tech Week 2022: Connecting Africa for a Digital Future

Sentech Africa Tech Week 2022 made its fourth consecutive appearance this year, providing a platform where 5,000 attendees came together - in person and virtually - to learn, be inspired, and meet those in the industry who are making a remarkable impact on solving Africa's unique challenges. Held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on August 31st and September 1st, various panel discussions were held sharing insights across topics such as the Internet of Things, broadband connectivity, cloud services and blockchain technology - to name a few. The CEO of Topco Media, Ralf Fletcher, believes that Africa is facing unique challenges that can only be solved by Africans. He shared that Africa Tech Week saw an explosion of excitement about current products and services that are bei...

13Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Startups

African Innovative Startups Join the Social & Inclusive Business Camp Program

On August 30th, the SIBC officially launched its 6th edition, welcoming the 43 entrepreneurs selected for the 2022 cohort. These social and inclusive entrepreneurs were chosen among more than 380 applications across Africa to participate in an intensive program aimed at preparing them for scaling up, through training, mentoring, peer-to-peer exchanges and meetings with investors. To contribute to the acceleration of social and inclusive innovation on the African continent; This is the objective set by the French Development Agency with the launch of the Social & Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC) program in 2017, led by the AFD Campus. Each year, the SIBC brings to a cohort of English- and French-speaking African entrepreneurs a very thorough support on 5 key themes for their scale up. L...

Flow wins Best Late-Stage Startup at AfricArena Awards

1Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

Flow wins Best Late-Stage Startup at AfricArena Awards

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 1 000 virtual viewers joined more than 60 high-level investors at the summit as it sought out Africa's best disruptors, across a variety of industries. The event saw 21 startups from across Southern Africa come together to learn, network, and showcase their innovative Ideas to the AfricArena ecosystem of investors, incubators and accelerators. “It’s at events like AfricArena that you get to lift your head up from the entrepreneurial trenches and get the ...

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

31Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Startups

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 2022, SAIF is funding 100 million Swedish Krona (approx. Euro 10 million) globally. SAIF is expanding fast to reach more countries. Currently, SAIF is active in 8 countries: Israel, Sweden, Albania, the UK, South Africa, Germany, Georgia, and North Macedonia. The AI Media Group is the primary launch partner for SAIF in Africa along with launch partners; AWS, Nvidia, Telkom, Embassy of Switzerland SA, Zindi, Cirrus AI and AiCE Kenya. We now invite candidate A...

24Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Startups

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 AfriTech (SBC), it was the stepping stone he needed to get his company off the ground. Africa is the last market with countless opportunities for startups, and the ASIP Accelerator aims to equip entrepreneurs with the necessary skills to access this market. Startupbootcamp Afritech is the most experienced,multi-corporate-backed tech accelerator that specialises in unlocking and growing Pan-Afri...

18Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Startups

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 surge. According to the Mobile Economy Report, 615 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, that’s equivalent to 50% of the region’s population. As we enter into a new year, Daniel Junowicz, RVP EMEA & Strategic Projects, at leading mobile marketing analytics platform AppsFlyer, explores three key trends for mobile apps in Africa this year. Inve...

9Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Startups

AUDA-NEPAD, JICA, Afreximbank & BCG Empower Accelerator Cohort Of Five Successful East African Healthcare Companies

This is off the back of the Home-Grown Solutions (HGS) Accelerator for Pandemic Resilience, an initiative that aims to accelerate the growth of African healthcare companies to strengthen the continent’s pandemic resilience The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) held an event to congratulate 5 burgeoning start-ups who are shaping East Africa's healthcare sector and announce both a publication on healthcare entrepreneurship in Africa and the opening of applications for next year’s Accelerator cohort. H.E. Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki said,” Infectious diseases remain a great threat to Africa’s aspiration to achieve its 2063 developmental blueprint: ‘‘Agenda 2...

18Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

AfricArena, the leading tech ecosystem accelerator programme, concludes its 2021 event circuit in Cape Town with a bang

AfricArena, which provides open innovation challenges, research and dealflow services to help accelerate the work of founders, investors and corporates, hosted its fifth annual Summit from 16 - 17 November in Cape Town. It was preceded by its Founders’ Bootcamp and VC Unconference Weekends, attended by 60 high level international investors and 40 startups from 15 African countries, as well as the elite of the continent’s ecosystem builders. During the Grand Summit, major announcements took place, including the new partnership between AfricArena, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Double Feather Partners to bridge the Japanese and African tech-ecosystems. Other announcements included the amplification of the AfricArena Vivatech partnership; a $42m Series B raise by Af...

12Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Startups

Failing To Win

A new book from Burnet Media, Cape Town will inspire and guide the next generation of African entrepreneurs. Failing To Win by Mike Quinn is the authentic story of a uniquely African startup at the forefront of the continent’s fintech revolution. Inspired to become the “M-Pesa of southern Africa” after Kenya’s pioneering mobile money innovation, Zoona secured tens of millions of dollars in international investment and grew to serve two-million customers in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique while processing $2.5-billion in transactions. This is an ideal read for anyone doing business or investing in Africa, and in particular for purpose-driven entrepreneurs and impact or venture capital investors. ABOUT THE BOOK In 2009, Canadian entrepreneur Mike Quinn packed his backpack and moved to Lu...

5Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Startups

African Startups to Play a Critical Role in Taking the Planet ‘from Tragedy to Triumph’ …But where will the funding come from?

This week, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) got underway in Glasgow, turning the world’s attention to the global climate crisis and the solutions needed to address this. But many solutions already exist… in Africa. “Whilst we are delighted that nearly 500 global financial firms have agreed to align $130 trillion - 40% of the worlds’ financial assets - to climate change and to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, now, more than ever, funding needs to be mobilised to scale innovations so they can have maximum impact. For this reason, the GIIG Africa Fund is seeking $100m in capital commitments to invest in tech and innovation in Africa over the next three years,” says GIIG Founding Partner, Mahyar Makhzani, a company set up to find, fund and grow Sustaina...