9 Startups Walk Away As Winners At The Fifth Annual AfricArena Grand Summit
9 Startups Walk Away As Winners At The Fifth Annual AfricArena Grand Summit! South African-based AfricArena, which has established itself as a leading ecosystem accelerator and deal flow platform across Africa since it launched in 2017, is anchored and endorsed by major international sponsors. These include Double Feather Partners, JICA, VivaTech, La French Tech, AWS, ITC, Saint Gobain, Technology Innovation Agency, Methys, City of Cape Town, Wesgro, Edge Growth, Specno along with several major investment networks such as SAVCA, EAVCA, and AVCA.
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 AfricArena 2017 alumnus, Ozow;and nine startups and one VC firm winning awards in various categories.
Over 40 startups from 15 African tech hubs attended a two-day bootcamp programme run by FSAT Labs ahead of the AfricArena Summit, where they pitched their various innovations to top investors. During the course of the Summit, several sponsored challenges also took place, ranging from the Saint Gobain Innovation Challenge, and the Viva Tech Challenge, to the FrenchTech Tech4Good Challenge.
The winning startups were:
Saint-Gobain Challenge: SafePay (South Africa) – CEO: Sam Ndegwa
Viva Tech Challenge: Reslocate (South Africa) – CEO: Lucas Moshawa
FrenchTech Tech4Good Challenge: SeroMed technologies (South Africa) – CEO: Anne Gabathuse
FSAT Labs Challenge: Wood Flavour (South Africa) – Founder: Dirk Van Den Berg
Seed Startup of the Year: Assuraf (South Africa) – CEO: Souleymane Gning
Series A Startup of the Year: Jabu (Namibia) – CEO: David Akinin
Late Stage Startup of the Year: Finclusion (Southern Africa) – CEO: Timothy Nuy
Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year: Zuri Health (Kenya) – Co-Founder: Daisy Isiaho
Most Innovative Startup of the Sear: 123tutors (South Africa) – Co-Founder: Joseph Nyamariwata
Investor Pitch: Naspers Louise Stuart: M&A Executive
