Solutions (533)
The solution aims to offer efficient logistics solutions to retailers in a context marked by rising transportation costs, which cost some retailers their operating profits.
Renda is a digital platform developed by a Nigerian eponymous start-up. It helps online businesses streamline their order fulfillment and retail distribution process across Africa.
The solution provides access to storage warehouses, inventory management, order processing, or even real-time delivery tracking solutions, making the delivery chain more reliable, and lifting a burden off businesses’ necks. Renda also allows van owners to get money by putting their vans for hire for deliveries.
To access its services, users have to fill out an online form, state the reason they are getting in touch and wait for the startup to contact them for further details.
Renda claims more than US$10 million of orders fulfilled in ten cities, 90+ warehouses, over 300 drivers, and a 96% fulfillment rate. It is among the nine African startups selected for the 2022 Techstars Toronto accelerator. It will thus undergo a 13-week mentoring program, a US$120,000 equity investment, and the opportunity to pitch for additional financing during demo days.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The African startup ecosystem is currently dominated by the fintech segments, probably because of the continent’s low financial inclusion rate. The segment has become so attractive to investors with ever-rising VC financing and the number of innovative solutions developed by enterpreneurs is also on the rise.
Gwiza is a fintech solution developed by a Rwandan eponymous startup. It allows users to pay utility bills, manage their expenses, contribute to group events, donate to charities or even save money individually or join a group to save collectively.
Through its mobile -Android and iOS- app and USSD code (*737#), it allows users to carry out various financial operations or enter a password to access the collective savings group they belong to. Users who want to join new groups or create new ones can do so through the Gwiza Plus app or visit a nearby Gwiza office for more assistance.
Apart from allowing group savings, fundraising and bill payment, Gwiza also enables insurance subscriptions. Despite its features, which make it a worthy alternative to mainstream financial services, the startup is not yet gaining much traction. According to Play Store data, its Android app has been downloaded less than 100 times. It is true that with its USSD technology, it could be more popular in rural areas but, without official figures, nothing much can be said about it.
The fintech startup is among the six selected to participate in the second cohort of the Fintech Incubation program organized by the Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), Google, the Rwandan Ministry of ICT and the Mojaloop Foundation. In December 2022, in the framework of the program, it will present its idea to potential investors.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The informal sector represents a sizeable portion of African economies. The situation negatively affects tax revenues in all the countries concerned. In Gabon, some tech entrepreneurs have launched an interesting solution that is expected to increase civic-mindedness, and hence increase tax revenues.
Gatax is an automated tax management solution developed by a Gabonese eponymous startup. It allows individuals and companies easy access to tax information.
From a smartphone or a computer, users can register and subscribe to a Gatax package, then fill out the required forms to be informed about the tax system, their tax status, benefits, etc.
The information the platform gives users depends on their subscription. The basic subscription (the free package) gives users information on the tax system and their tax status. Apart from the free package, the startup has three premium ones. The most expensive package gives users complete control over their tax situation by providing details on how to contact tax directorates, how to fill out their tax returns, and receive periodic alerts to avoid penalties.
The startup, which is still being matured at the incubator SING SA, aims to conquer a local market estimated at XOF2.4 billion. It aims to optimize tax collection and fight tax delinquency while empowering SMEs.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Fintech is currently the most dynamic segment of the African tech ecosystem. It attracts a significant portion of financings and aims to foster financial inclusion on the continent.
Kiwe is a fintech solution developed by an Egyptian eponymous startup. It allows its users to transfer money in real-time, and quickly pay SMEs. It also helps event managers collect payments.
"We are strong believers in empowering freelancers and business owners by helping them identify their targets, level up their customer experience, and accept online and offline payments. Our vision is for KIWE to become a verb interchangeable with any word that speaks of payments. We strive to have our customers reach out to their phones instinctively whenever a receipt is printed, a cheque arrives at the table, or a friend’s pay-back is due," Kiwe explained in a release in 2021.
To fulfill its set mission, the startup developed a mobile app, accessible for Android and iOS devices. Once downloaded, the app allows users to register their accounts to start making transactions. In addition to the features mentioned above, the app also allows one-scan transactions, positioning itself as a pretty handy tool for making any type of payment. On PlayStore, it has already been downloaded more than 5,000 times.
Last month, it raised an undisclosed amount from vaIU, a subsidiary of universal bank EFG Herme Holding. "With its unique offering and simplified, engaging user experience, Kiwe will benefit greatly from leveraging our vast and ever-growing network of vendors. Hence, this is an investment that promises growth for all," said Habiba Naguib, Head of Strategy and Market expansion at valU.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In recent years, Africa’s booming tech ecosystem has attracted several investors. This dynamic environment encourages the development of various tech solutions to address local issues.
Nawali is a real estate platform developed by a Senegalese start-up, founded, in 2018. It allows the African diaspora to easily acquire real estate properties (from lands to turkey houses) in countries where it is currently active: Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, Mali, and Côte d’Ivoire namely.
The platform functions like a marketplace where real estate properties are listed, allowing users to acquire any property they are attracted to.
The startup has developed several funding mechanisms allowing buyers to either pay in cash, by installments, or by joining Nawali tontine (a mutual savings scheme that allows users to save collectively and purchase properties at the end of the savings period when they collect the amount saved.)
Nawali also offers its buyers eco-friendly houses made of raw earth bricks. It recently launched a project aimed at building an eco-city in Southern Cameroon. In July 2022, the startup opened a funding round to raise €460,000 to support the project. According to its founder, Aïta Magassa, apart from helping create massive jobs for qualified workers, the project, which is “perfectly adapted to the needs in Africa,” would allow the African diaspora to reclaim its lands.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, hospitals are still recording numerous deaths caused by the shortage of blood products. To solve this problem in his country, a Sierra Leonean tech entrepreneur has set up an e-health solution facilitating blood donation.
LifeBlood is a digital platform developed by a Sierra Leonean eponymous startup. It allows users to donate blood in a few clicks.
With its mobile app "Donate Blood," it streamlines the blood donation process. Once a user downloads the app and registers an account, he/she can carry out a blood test and, if everything goes well, donate blood and set a donation frequency. The app reminds its users of upcoming donations.
The Sierra Leonean startup has numerous blood donation centers, across the country. Its centers are usually set up in hospitals, giving users the choice to get to the centers closer to their homes or offices depending on their schedules. This approach helps users donate blood without causing much disruption to their tight schedules.
It also allows users to set up blood donation campaigns, and define the targets, periods, etc. With this feature, it aims to allow users to support its actions, therefore increasing the number of unpaid voluntary donors and improving the operational efficiency of blood services and the national blood safety service.
For its actions, the startup won the first prize of the Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East (POESAM), going home with a €25,000 check.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The developer of the innovative tool is passionate about digital technologies given their importance in helping address key issues. He sees Nkwa as a way to improve the population’s financial discipline.
Nkwa is a web and mobile - available for Android and iOS devices- financial solution developed and launched by Cameroonian tech entrepreneur Akwo Ashangndowah in 2020. It allows users to regularly save money directly from their mobile phones simply and more safely for their future projects.
To start saving with Nkwa, users need to register and set specific targets, including duration or overall amount to save. Once the targets are set, the user can start saving via mobile money.
Like bank savings accounts, Nkwa offers a yearly 3% interest rate for amounts saved. In case of an emergency, users can withdraw the amounts they saved without waiting for their set targets or amounts. However, in that case, the startup applies a 5% penalty on the amount withdrawn.
In 2021, Akwo Ashangndowah explained that Nkwa helps users have a clear view and control over their money and the things they want to achieve with the savings since they are not required to make big savings.
Nkwa is an initiative of Maealth Tech Limited, an innovative company founded and led from 2015 to 2020 by Akwo Ashangndowah, who has also worked in the health technology. In October 2022, the startup was selected as one of 15 African fintech startups that will participate in the fifth edition of "CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa" organized by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technologies (LHoFT). The start-up will also participate in the Arch Summit taking place on October 26-27, 2022.
Melchior Koba
Freight transport has become an attractive sector for tech entrepreneurs in recent years. The volume of investment and number of innovations is ever rising to allow timely and affordable deliveries.
Chargel is a digital platform developed by a Senegalese eponymous start-up. It allows truckers to quickly find clients without driving around with empty trucks. It also allows shippers to quickly find truck drivers to transport their goods at affordable prices.
It connects shippers and carriers, and offers value-added services like GPS tracking, discounted fuel purchases, and repair assistance to allow truckers to focus on their “core business and get shipments to their destination.”
Shippers can book available trucks instantly or in advance, track their goods in real time and get electronic proof of delivery.
The startup behind the solution aims to become the largest digital logistics platform in Francophone Africa. Earlier this year, it secured US$750,000 in pre-seed funding to support its growth. It is also hopeful for seed funding, by the end of the year, to scale up.
For Raja Kaul, founder and managing partner of Logos Ventures, one of Chargel's investors, the startup's founders are well "positioned to build Chargel into a leading logistics marketplace in Senegal, and eventually across West Africa."
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, and possibly in the rest of the world, instant messaging apps are getting more popular. Local entrepreneurs have decided to create alternatives to the foreign apps that have dominated the market up to now.
OnDjoss is an instant messaging app developed by a Cameroonian eponymous start-up. It allows users to chat through instant text messages, and audio and video calls.
"Ondjoss is an instant messaging app made by Africans for the world. It is about providing Africans with a powerful messaging app that they can identify with. The aim is to later compete with similar well-known apps worldwide but, we want to conquer Africa first,” indicates Ondjoss founder, Valere Tchapda.
The mobile app is available for Android devices only. Some users criticize it for being a carbon copy of WhatsApp but, Valere Tchapda says it is not. She explains that unlike other messaging apps (Whatsapp notably), other Ondjoss users can not access other users’ phone numbers in groups they belong to. They can only see usernames. With Ondjoss, users can also send heavy files of up to several gigabytes and save messages to recover later when they misplace their phones.
In 2022, a new feature was added to the app. The feature, called Kongossa, allows peer-to-peer messaging for enhanced privacy.
To register or create an Ondjoss account, users will need to provide their phone numbers and create pseudos. Then, they can chat with their contacts, who also have Ondjoss accounts. The personal data scandal that hit U.S firm Meta and its messaging app, WhatsApp notably, positively impacted OnDjoss userbase. It claims more than 125,000 users and Playstore data shows 100,000+ downloads.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, access to conventional financing is most of the time difficult for SMEs and informal traders. Mosabi aims to facilitate that access and also improve its users’ business and financial literacy.
Mosabi is a tech solution developed by a Sierra Leonean eponymous start-up. It helps entrepreneurs, mainly from the informal sector, access financial and business information to manage their business and money better.
“We [...] use visual and audio cues that can reach low-literacy users. Not only does our training help users build practical skills and increase their income, but our lessons and economic incentives are also specifically designed to drive behavior change,” explained Mosabi co-founder and CEO, Chris Czerwonka.
Through its video content, users can study many subjects, including entrepreneurship, business, and financial literacy. Mosabi also uses gamified quizzes, surveys, and conversational agents to enhance the way courses are delivered while considering participants’ literacy to adjust its contents and exams.
“We believe we are creating unique and tangible value from learning, for people excluded from traditional educational pathways, and placing the control back into their hands as we help them understand and improve their creditworthiness,” Chris Czerwonka says.
The startup claims more than 20,000 users in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Paraguay, and Senegal. According to Czerwonka, within five years, it plans to launch in 20 global south countries and emerge as the “worldwide training platform of choice for lifelong learning aligned with global sustainable development” within ten years. To support its growth plan, it has already raised more than US$150,000.
Its Android app is not on PlayStore, the official app store for Android devices, but, it has already been downloaded more than 10,000 times from APKCombo.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
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Access to medicines sometimes proves challenging in Africa, leading tech entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions to address the various issues.
Phati is an e-health solution developed by Congolese start-up Valorigo, founded in 2018. It helps users check whether health products are available in their neighborhoods, compare prices, and get directions to the most appropriate pharmacies.
Users can access the solution through its web platform and contact chosen pharmacies on Whatsapp. Indeed, when looking for specific health products, they just have to visit the Phati web platform and input their location and the name of the product. They will then get redirected to a page listing the pharmacies selling products, their prices, and contact details. Once the user selects a pharmacy to buy from, he/she is redirected to WhatsApp to complete the acquisition.
To be listed on Phati, pharmacies have to register by providing their name, address, and contact details. Apart from Phati, Valorigo has developed several other e-health solutions.
In September 2022, it was selected as one of the 30 healthtech startups that will participate in the pan-African program Investing in Innovation (i3).
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The solution was developed to, among other things, ease access to health products for the more than 50% of French-speaking African patients who are still buying drugs on street corners.
Meditect is an e-health solution developed by an Ivorian eponymous start-up. It allows access to quality health products, helps locate the nearest pharmacies, and verifies the authenticity of products they purchase. The start-up, founded in 2018 by Arnaud Pourredon and Romain Renard, aims to digitalize the drug distribution chain in Côte d'Ivoire.
According to Arnaud Pourredon, Meditect was created to help Africa, which is experiencing an unprecedented demographic explosion, address challenges preventing access to quality medicines with digitalization.
Thanks to its mobile app -available for Android and iOS devices, the solution helps users access information on the health products they are prescribed. Provided they are logged in or signed in, they can easily check the prices of the products and the pharmacies where they are available.
The solution also requires pharmacists to create accounts before submitting their pharmacies. To avoid data loss in case of unforeseen events, the startup stores data both locally and on the cloud. Currently, it operates in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, claiming more than 50,000 patients and 1,200 pharmacies. It also partners with local and customs authorities to combat counterfeit drugs. It has for instance helped seize more than 3,000 drugs. Play Store data show its Android app has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. In September 2022, the healthtech startup was selected to take part in the pan-African Investing in Innovation (i3).
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The solution created in Ghana to facilitate freight transport across Africa has now taken on the international scene.
Swiftly is a digital solution developed by a Ghanaian eponymous startup founded in 2016. It allows its users -namely freight forwarders and traders- access to freight quotes and expert advice on customs regulations, and ships goods worldwide.
To use the solution, users have to visit its web platform and fill out a form with their freight details to get quotes from the startup’s network of freight forwarders. They can thus select the best quote, make payment online and wait for the freight to be delivered.
Air freights usually take between three and five working days against 30-40 days for sea freight and 1-2 days for road freights. For usual courier services, the delivery time is usually below three hours.
Let’s note that to get quotes and order freight or courier services, users will have to create their Swiftly accounts by providing personal information like name, surname, email, phone number, etc. Using their Swiftly accounts, users can also negotiate with other Swiftly users to co-lease containers for their shipments.
“It is a waste of space when someone has to ship a half-full container by sea, a half-full package by air, or hire a delivery service without fully utilizing the space in there. We aim to solve that by linking shippers to each other for them to share their extra space. Others also wish they could find someone to collaborate with to load a shipment, we are the matching platform for such people,” explained Swiftly co-founder Edem Dotse.
The startup, which claims rates up to 30% lower than the competition, went from shipping just 100 kilograms yearly to 500 tons monthly. According to Edem Dotse, it already ships goods from all over the world to countries like Ghana, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, and China.
Its plan is now to establish a physical presence in French-speaking West Africa, and East Africa. It also plans to introduce its business model in the United States, China, and Europe.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The ongoing technological revolution has affected every economic sector, including the informal ones. Sabi is one of those solutions developed to solve some of the problems faced by those informal sectors.
Sabi is a B2B platform developed by a Nigerian eponymous startup, founded in 2020. It allows informal traders to seamlessly conduct business transactions.
Its services are accessible via an Android and iOS app. Using the app, informal traders can create their accounts, connect with other registered merchants and easily conduct business and get products delivered if needed.
The platform also allows informal traders to monitor their sales and get performance reports. It even allows access to loans to help traders recover from major problems. “Sabi ensures Merchants are allowed to grow and increase their revenue with services such as loans and access to the best product prices in the market,” its website explains.
It claims over 10,000 agents across Nigeria, with 200,000 merchants registered and over US$2 billion in sales. Play Store data show its Android app has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. The startup, which is also present in Kenya, wants to scale into other African countries in the coming years. For that purpose, in 2021, it raised US$6 million to support its growth.
Adoni Conrad Quenum