Solutions (507)
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are important tools to improve the efficiency of digital solutions. They are now used by a growing number of African startups.
In 2021, Nour Altaher and Omar Mansour co-founded Egyptian market research startup Intella, a startup that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data to improve business insights. Through its cloud-based platform, the startup allows firms to create quick custom surveys, run online focus groups and use data to optimize their brand performance.
In March 2022, Intella raised US$1 million to attract new talents, improve its platform and develop new analytics tools. According to co-founder and CTO Omar Mansour, “Intella is a real technological innovation, offering predictive machine-learning and analytic models based on new pattern discovery and big data, which has proved to be of unparalleled value for companies aiming at making informed decisions, and meeting the needs of their customers promptly.”
It can therefore be used by government entities, financial institutions, startups, or even SMEs planning to launch new products. The platform collects real-time information from its online communities of students, techies, millennials, and single mothers. Thanks to the diversity of its community and its specific algorithms that assess the quality of the answers given by each of the surveyed, the platform improves the quality of surveys it spearheads.
Currently, Intella’s services are only available through its web platform. To launch a new project, users just have to visit its website, provide a set of information like the nature of the project, the target country, and sector and leave Intella to handle the rest. Its pricing depends on several parameters like the type and size of the audience and the project duration.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, startups are developing digital solutions to facilitate the daily life of the population. Local startup Sticitt is doing the same in South Africa’s education sector.
South African startup Sticitt launched, in 2018, a comprehensive cashless payment solution, Sticitt Pay, to ease payments in various sectors.
The startup was co-founded in 2017 (according to company insight platform Crunchbase) by Dennis Wevell (photo, center), Mitch Dart (photo, right), Theo Kitshoff (photo, left).
It serves several clients, including lifestyle and golf estates, however, it is renowned for its services in the education sector. It allows parents and students to pay school fees and contributions for school-related activities. Through its communication feature, it also allows parents to track learners’ progress.
According to co-founder and CEO Theo Kitshoff, “Sticitt Pay [...] offers schools an integrated smart payment system that is safe and easy to use and is the first important step in our journey to simplify education-related payments and building toward a youth banking alternative.”
Just after the launch of Sticitt Pay, the three co-founders signed a deal with edtech d6 Group to gain access to a prospective list of 2,000 school clients through the partner’s network.
Currently, the startup claims 791 schools contracted, 97,650 accounts created and 677,096 learners reached. It further reveals that in the first quarter of 2020, it processed transactions totaling US$616,000 for 400 schools.
Its ambition is to add more features to its platform and extend its reach to cover SMEs operating in the education ecosystem. For the founders, the startup is already at the post-revenue stage but it should strive for sustainable growth in the ecosystem.
For that purpose, in March 2022, it completed an oversubscribed seed funding round. The amount raised was not disclosed but, for Sticitt director Dr. Eugene van Rensburg, with the funds, Sticitt will “accelerate its product development, schools deployment and significantly contribute to the upliftment of learners, their parents, and schools.”
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, a growing number of digital solutions are gradually turning to super-apps offering multiple services.
In 2019, Franco-Nigerian startup Kwik launched an eponymous digital solution that allows users to order products online, pay, and get them delivered in a timely manner. Founded in 2018 by Olivier Decrock, Romain Poirot Lellig, and Yinka Olayanju, the startup successfully completed several funding rounds totaling US$4.2 million to cover the whole of Nigeria.
According to Kwik co-founder and CEO Romain Poirot Lellig, the goal is for the startup “to become the prime app choice for African social vendors and for traditional merchants going digital. Integrating delivery, payment, and e-commerce tool seamlessly in one easy-to-use mobile app is a catchy proposition.”
The digital solution, available on iOS and Android, has several features that allow online store owners to seamlessly manage their businesses. The solution has already been adopted by more than 1000,000 merchants for their businesses’ logistics, commercial and financial needs.
To deliver the orders placed through its app, Kwik uses motorbikes, vans, or rucks depending on the quantity and size of the goods to be delivered. Specifically, goods weighing 25 kilograms and below are delivered using bikes while those comprising between 1.5 and two tons are delivered with vans. Other goods whose weight exceeds those limits are delivered by trucks. With such a fleet, last-mile delivery is easy, fast, and affordable, the startup indicates. For each delivery, it collects 20% of the revenue generated while drivers keep the remaining amount.
By the end of 2022, the startup plans to launch a credit service and increase its merchant base to 800,000.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, the startup ecosystem is buzzing with all sorts of tech from fintech to healthech and e-tourism. Food delivery startup Elmenus is one of them. With its mobile app Elmenus, it wants to showcase Egypt's culinary specialties.
Elmenus is a digital platform launched in 2018 by the eponymous startup to showcase Egyptian culinary specialties and the restaurants where they can be found. The startup was founded in 2011 by Amir Allam. Between February 2012 and February 2022, it completed several funding rounds totaling US$19.5 million to support its local expansion. Its investors include notable names like Careem and Luxor Capital Group as well as local fund Unicorn Fawry.
According to Amir Allam (photo, center) by investing in Elmenus, investors have approved the startup’s “unique strategy.” “We are accelerating the adoption of online ordering by users while enabling restaurants with new verticals – to help them scale. This funding demonstrates the investors’ strong belief in our position in Egypt, and our capability to dominate the market,” he explains.
The digital platform is available on PlayStore, AppStore, and AppGallery (the app store developed by Huawei). It allows users to easily and quickly order food from more than 6,000 restaurants without making a single call. The user can even track the status of his/her order all through the delivery process. They can pay on delivery with cash or bank cards.
The mobile app has a social sharing feature that allows users to share pictures of the foods they ordered through Elmenus. To access the services, users have to register on the platform, by entering their name, email, and a secure password.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, doctor density is below the World Health Organization’s recommendations. To alleviate the issue, startups are developing local e-health solutions.
Waspito is an e-health platform set up by a Cameroonian start-up that connects patients with doctors for live video consultations. Founded in 2020, by Jean Lobé Lobé (photo), Waspito successfully completed a US$2.7 million funding round, in March 2022, to support its growth and expand into Côte d’Ivoire. The seed fund was contributed by notable investors like Launch Africa Ventures, Newtown Partners, and Orange Ventures.
“We are proud of the pool of investors we were able to get on this round. Their experience and network will add value to our team as we continue this journey to solving Africa’s health care accessibility and affordability problem,” said Jean Lobé Lobé commending the investment.
According to the founder and CEO, Waspito plans to enter a dozen countries in the next four years.
The platform offers its services through internet but it also has a mobile app available on PlayStore and AppStore. Users can book consultations with doctors and access a list of available pharmacists and laboratories. The aim is to allow users to quickly get medication or even get them delivered to their doorsteps and perform lab tests after the online consultations. It also has a forum managed by doctors. Through that forum, users can anonymously submit their problems to get help from doctors.
Currently, the platform claims more than 15,000 patients served. In 2020, it was one of the seven winners of Orange Ventures' MEA Seed Challenge.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, the low bancarisation rate, combined with the digitalization fever, offers a fertile ground for the development of fintech startups.
Yoco is a South African fintech startup co-founded in 2013 by Katlego Maphai, Carl Wazen, Bradley Wattrus, and Lungisa Matshoba. Through its platform, it allows entrepreneurs to accept card payments. In 2017, the startup launched an eponymous mobile app to serve more clients in the local market.
The platform allows Yoco clients to collect card payments but, it also gives SMEs the possibility to get cash advances to develop their businesses, through Yoco Capital. With Yoco Capital, the South African startup aims to help SMEs that are unable to get loans from traditional institutions develop their operations with no worries about deadlines, interest rates, or even defaulting risks and their consequences.
“We understand that accessing capital is one of the hardest challenges faced by small business owners. It's also one of the biggest reasons why small businesses remain small. We continue to offer solutions that leverage smart technology to help small businesses grow,” indicates Yoco co-founder Katlego Maphai.
Yoco Capital is accessible to eligible Yoco merchants only. Within one day, applicants can receive the loans requested. The amounts granted can range from ZAR2,500 (US$160) to ZAR75,000 (US$4,800).
Since its creation, the startup has completed several funding rounds. The latest is a Series C funding round completed in July 2021. During that round led by Dragoneer Investment Group, Yoco raised US$83 million “to accelerate product development.”
In 2021, the startup claimed it had 150,000 businesses in its portfolio with 500 new merchants adding to that portfolio daily. Currently, the startup plans to expand into new African markets. Indeed, 90% of SMEs operating on the continent are small businesses. Yoco’s offers will be highly valuable to African entrepreneurs.
In 2017, Yoco was selected by CB Insights as one of the top 250 financial technology companies in the world.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, thanks to technology, citizens now have easy access to alternative financial solutions. Lucky is one of those solutions.
Lucky is a digital app that gives users in the MENA region the chance to win discounts, as well as access interesting offers, cashback, and credit products from 20,000 local and international brands. The platform was developed by the eponymous startup, Lucky, co-founded in 2018 by two Egyptians, Momtaz Moussa and Ayman Essawy (photo).
In March 2022, some four years after its creation, the startup completed a US$25 million series A funding round to support its growth in the MENA region. Lucky gives users transparent offers and increased buying power in a region where consumers usually have poor or no access to credit. For Momtaz Moussa, “the MENA region’s huge unbanked, young population and cash-dominated economy is a significant market opportunity” for Lucky.
All users have to do is to download Lucky from AppStore or PlayStore, register, and shop as they usually do to start accumulating points to be redeemed for discounts and cashback from the numerous e-commerce platforms Lucky is partnered with. Most of the time, the offers and cashback come from brands seeking more visibility. In their quest, they pay commissions to Lucky, which redirects part of those commissions to its users through the offers and cashback.
Currently, the startup claims more than eight million users and a network of 30,000 stores.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In the past few years, global leaders in on-demand transportation have heavily invested in African markets. Bolt, Yango, and Uber are notable names but, their solutions are sometimes not efficient. Local startups like Moja Ride are building their solutions to address those minor inefficiencies.
Moja Ride is a Mobility-as-a-Service startup launched, in 2017, to make life easier for Ivorians. In March 2021, the startup created by Jean Claude Gouesse (photo, center), raised an undisclosed amount from Mobility 54, a venture capital fund set up by Japanese firm Toyota.
The eponymous platform developed by the startup is an alternative to ride-hailing giants operating in Abidjan. With its platform, Moja Ride wants to offer an urban mobility solution to its users but it also wants to help them build a network by offering simple, affordable, and efficient alternative mobility solutions.
The app allows ride-sharing between friends, neighbors, and co-workers to help save on daily travel expenses. It also allows transport operators to easily manage their fleets and routes.
Each of the rides planned through Moja Ride is insured for up to XOF2 million for individual accidents and up to XOF300,000 for healthcare coverage.
To facilitate payments, Moja Ride developed an internal solution based on the payment network Visa and fare collection O-City’s systems. To access its services, users just have to download the mobile app from AppStore or PlayStore and fill in a set of information. Its revenues come from commissions generated on rides booked and payments collected by drivers.
In October 2020, Moja Ride was selected to participate in the Africa Tech Summit Connects, a competition offering startups the possibility to raise pre-seed, seed, or Series A funding.
In 2021, the startup was claiming over 1,200 taxis and buses available for booking through its platform in Abidjan.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Cybersecurity and data protection are important issues in the digital era. The solution developed by Youverify aims to address those issues in Nigeria, and in Africa as a whole.
YouID is a digital solution developed by Nigerian start-up Youverify to secure personal information and physical identifiers. It aims to help users share the least possible amount of information on the web by storing them in an encrypted format.
Thanks to its digital solution, Youverify, which was founded in 2017, by Gbenga Odegbami and Suru Avoseh, completed several funding rounds, including a US$1.5million round led by Orange Digital Ventures.
According to Gbenga Odegbami, Youverify CEO, YouID “constitutes a unique opportunity for the company to take further our ambition to simplify and secure its client’s internal processes, whether in the recruitment of staff, customer onboarding, etc.”
“Our ambition is to be the leading African player in verifying people and companies’ identities by making data protection and security the core of our proposal,” he added.
On behalf of its users, YouID automatically fills social media, e-commerce, and streaming forms with information previously submitted for storage on the encrypted digital platform.
To store their information on YouID, users first have to download the app from App Store or Play Store, create their accounts, and secure them using PIN codes or biometric data. Then, they will have to scan their faces to prove the accounts are created by humans, not bots. A third phase consists of scanning ID documents proving users’ identities. The last step is to add contact information through which the app can alert users when their information is compromised.
Youverify claims over 300,000 registrations and verifications since the launch of YouID.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The management of corporate sales and orders has constantly evolved in the past few decades. The era of big cash registers has passed to give way to digital solutions like TallOrder.
TallOrder is a cloud-based digital solution that helps SMBs manage sales and orders. Available via windows, iOS, and Android apps, the solution was developed by the eponymous startup launched in 2014 by Anna Groenewald and Dana Buys (photo). In January 2022, it completed a US$3.1 million funding round to complement the US$2.2 million it previously raised to accelerate its African expansion.
With TallOrder, the South African startup allows SMBs to avoid losing files, keeping duplicate data, or filling wrong inputs when using excel workbooks. "Creating a powerful, feature-rich, and broadly adaptable cloud POS solution requires significant development effort, both financially and time-wise," said Dana Buys, CEO, and co-founder of TallOrder.
TallOder can replace the IT department of retail, service, and hospitality companies, manage their internet security handle onsite and offsite backups and make disaster recoveries, software updates as well as database integrations. Employers can seamlessly submit quotes and invoices and access product information (stock, bill of materials, pricing) or customer data.
The platform also allows companies to get paid via popular platforms like SnapScan, Zapper, MasterPass, Yoco, ThumbzUp, MTN MoMo, Innervation, African Resonance, NetCash, DPO, and PayFast.
Currently, in Africa, TallOrder is present in South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, and Seychelles. In Asia, it is present in Indonesia. For its international market, TallOrder has an offer for hotels and guesthouses.
Its services are accessible at flat rates ranging from US$24.95 to 119.95.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
More...
In the wake of the ongoing digital transformation in Africa, local startups are developing solutions to facilitate the discovery of their culture and tourist attractions. Tabaani is one of those startups.
Tunisian startup Tabaani allows private individuals (called hosts) to organize, through its eponymous platform, tours in regions with tourist potential. It was founded in 2020 by Hamza Moussi (photo), Moukim Hfaidh and Wiem Ben Mahmoud. Early this year, the startup completed a US$120,000 funding round to support its expansion.
Tabaani aims to provide tourists with a tailored experience and help them avoid tourist traps. For Wiem Ben Mahmoud, Tabaani cofounder, the startup allows tourists to travel “off beaten paths,” meet new people and discover new cultures. “It is more than mere tours, it is an immersion in local culture: a highly emotional experience,” she explains.
On Tabaani, hosts can organize all sorts of tours, be they bike tours, car trips, food tours, or visits to historical places as a way to share lifetime memories and meet people from various backgrounds who share the same passion. The price of each of the tours is set by the hosts. It is then up to tourists to select the tours they are interested in to customize their own traveling experience. Tabaani even has a rating system to let tourists discover the most rated hosts, who are called ambassadors.
In 2020, the e-tourism platform was selected as the best solution for external use during the first national "OpenGovDataHack2020" hackathon organized by the Tunisian Ministry of Public Service in partnership with the World Bank. The value of the award was DT3,000, about US$1,000.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Trella entered the Egyptian market in 2018. Within years, it expanded to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan with hopes to enter every MENA country with support from leading investors.
Trella is an e-logistics platform launched by its eponymous startup, in 2018, in the Egyptian market. The platform, available on playstore, acts as a network connecting shippers with transporters and even goes an extra mile to resolve issues that may arise between the two parties. In June 2021, Startup Trella successfully completed a US$42 million funding round thanks to its innovative business model.
Founded by Muhammad El Garem, Ali El Atra, and Omar Hagrass, the startup aims to improve efficiency and reliability in the trucking market. “The cost of moving goods in Egypt is two to four times more expensive than it is in Europe and the US,” said Trella’s CEO, Omar Hagrass. For the CEO, by making the sector more efficient, Trella brings costs down and wins the market.
Before Trella, “carriers used to make hundreds of phone calls every day just to be able to take one load. (...) Sometimes, they would spend three to five days idle because they did not have anyone to assign them any loads,” he added.
In addition to its reliability and transparency, Trella also allows shippers to track their shipments in real-time. It also provides key transportation trends and performances.
To access the various services offered by Trella, users either register online or via the mobile app. Then, they can fill a set of information to be informed about everything needed for their loads to reach the started destination.
By 2021, Trella was already employing 100 people. At the time, it claimed more than 350 shipping partners and more than 15,000 carriers on its platform. With automated dashboards and 24/7 customer service, the platform is keeping up with the competition. Its next step is to expand in the whole MENA region.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Egypt, 40% of deliveries fail. This is four times higher than the global average, which is about 8%. Concerned by the situation, several local entrepreneurs have been trying to deal with this challenge which plagues a sector that is worth about US$3.1 billion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
ShipBlu is a digital platform that provides last-mile delivery services in Egypt. It fulfills orders not only from individuals but also from online shopping platforms and local stores. It was co-founded in 2020, by Ali Nasser (photo, center), Ahmed ElKawass (photo, right), and Abdelrahman Hosny (photo, left). In October 2021, the startup completed a US$2.4 million funding round, with investors including Nama Ventures and Orange Ventures, to improve its services and support expansion.
The idea for ShipBlu came from Ali Nasser’s realization of the state of delivery services in the country. “Roughly 56% of the time when someone in Egypt places an order online, they don’t even get a delivery date. After you place your order and you get an email confirmation, it’s complete silence until, on a random day, you’re going to get a call from the agent who’s on their way to you asking if you are available to pick up the package. We’re changing that,” he explains.
To change things as they put it, ShipBlu founders created a platform allowing users to access marketplaces and online stores of partner brands operating in Egypt. The partners usually have stocks in ShipBlu’s warehouses to allow the startup to quickly deliver placed orders. Right from their ShipBlu dashboards, users can monitor the status of their orders.
The startup, accelerated by Y Combinator, usually delivers orders within three hours and users always have an idea of when they will receive their packages.
Deliveries are billed per the size of the package, the delivery time frame selected, and the destination. The startup claims to have developed an Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithm to “reduce costs, meet delivery constraints and refine its operating assumptions.”
ShipBlu’s system improves the quality of the services offered by online shopping platforms in the country despite addressing problems that arise due to inaccurate or non-existent postal codes.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Afrikamart is a Senegalese fresh produce distribution startup that offers its marketing services to agri-food producers. It has an online platform where merchants, hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets can buy their fresh products. Launched in 2018, Afrikamart was founded after Mignane Diouf, its founder, noticed that it was easier for retailers to import fruit and vegetables from Morocco than to buy them locally in Senegal.
The startup collects fresh products from thousands of producers in rural areas for distribution to retailers in urban areas. In doing so, it guarantees better incomes for farmers, better prices for retailers, and quality products for end consumers.
To become Afrikamart suppliers, producers fill in contact information to allow the startup to reach out for more information about their products and whether they can be sold on the platform.
Clients also have to follow a set of procedures like the products they are willing to buy and which quantity they are planning to buy weekly.
Afrikamart claims to have delivered 8,000 kilograms of products daily in 2021 and created 200 indirect jobs thanks to the collaboration with more than 600 agri-food producers. Its long-term plan is to expand into more West African markets by building on the supply chain expertise and the success it acquired in Senegal.
Adoni Conrad Quenum