TECH STARS (960)
South Africa has one of the most advanced technology ecosystems in Africa. The country has numerous tech entities, including startups, incubators, and accelerators. Among them is Start with Seven (Sw7).
Start with Seven (Sw7) is Africa's first virtual acceleration platform for B2B. It brings together B2B tech founders, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, mentors, and investors.
Founded in 2014 by Odette and Keith Jones (CEO), Sw7 provides strategic guidance to pre-seed to Series B startups and funded companies. This South African platform also offers a comprehensive set of guidelines, resources, information, and expertise developed by and with founders, CEOs, mentors, and venture capital firms to boards of companies.
The support is delivered to business managers and entrepreneurs through tailored digital workshops, community calls, and 24/7 access to online resources and content. The platform's guidance extends throughout the fundraising journey. It provides insights on establishing and scaling offshore operations, as well as expanding into the United Kingdom, the United States, or other African markets.
"We combine private one-on-one workshops, advisory, and mentoring sessions on priority areas with peer learning and knowledge-sharing that take place in our private roundtables, group webinars, and on our platform," the platform indicates.
Sw7 collaborates with various technology partners, including Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, Intercom, Miro, and Twilio. These partners offer several advantages, ranging from training and technical support to scaling assistance and enhanced market access.
Melchior Koba
He founded a company that digitizes the transportation sector and connects freight shippers and carriers. Backed by several investors, the company collaborates with major transport companies.
Moustapha Ndoye (see picture) is a Senegalese computer scientist and graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology. With Alioune Ndoye, he co-founded Chargel, a logistics technology startup created in 2021. The company's mission is to make road transport more efficient, reliable, and transparent.
The startup helps carriers find freight at any time via its platform. This helps the users avoid empty trips while enjoying prompt payments. In addition, it offers value-added services such as the supply of GPS trackers, assistance in purchasing fuel at discounted rates, and support for repairs in case of breakdown.
With his startup, Moustapha Ndoye, its CEO, hopes to build the largest network of road freight transport in French-speaking West Africa. This will facilitate shippers' access to thousands of trucks at the best prices.
In April 2023, the company successfully raised $2.5 million to expand its operations in Senegal and neighboring countries such as Mali, Guinea, and Mauritania. Chargel has recently been selected for the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund and was ranked among the top 20 African startups to watch in 2023 by Jeune Afrique magazine.
Since its launch, Chargel has entered partnerships with several global giants, including Maersk and Grimaldi. In 2022, the company recorded a gross merchandise volume of $1.2 million.
Before starting Chargel, Moustapha Ndoye was the CEO of Xtreme Design and Engineering - an iOS mobile application development company, from 2009 to 2018. In 2013, he co-founded Teranga Solutions, a company that provides an outstanding hotel experience by leveraging mobile and cloud technologies.
After serving as CEO of Teranga Solutions, he became the Chief Operating Officer of HotelOnline in 2018. In 2020, he joined Wave Mobile Money as Director of Products until the launch of Chargel the following year.
Melchior Koba
He is a tech entrepreneur with two successful companies in Liberia. Thanks to his solution My Watchman, he was celebrated at the Global Startup Awards as West Africa's Founder of the Year 2023.
Oliver Wleh Klark (photo) is a Liberian entrepreneur who graduated from Hamline University School of Business in 2012 with a Master's in International Conflict Management. Recently, at the Global Startup Awards, he received the 2023 West Africa Founder of the Year award for his tech solution My Watchman.
“This award is a win for Liberia because it gives the country the platform to showcase innovations and different technologies, developed locally, which can be scaled across the continent. So, we are proud to have won this, but more importantly for us, we think this is a big win for all Liberians,” he said after receiving the award.
The solution that earned him the award is a full-service emergency app, with an around-the-clock emergency response network and an emergency dispatch command center. It's a smarter, safer way to protect family and property, with access to help anywhere, anytime. As the winner of this award in the West African zone, My Watchman and Oliver Wleh Klark will represent the whole zone at the grand final where the continental founder of the year will be named.
The solution is a registered trademark of technology company Advanced Converged Technologies LLC, founded and currently headed by Oliver Wleh Klark. The entrepreneur is also the CEO and one of the co-founders of RoviaGate Technology, a Liberia-based information and communication technology (ICT) company offering integrated smart data-centric solutions.
Melchior Koba
CAYSTI teaches coding, robotics, and the fundamentals of artificial intelligence to children. It guides them in the creation and launch of professional digital projects, ensuring their long-term viability.
The Cameroon Youth School Tech Incubator (CAYSTI) is a center for technological innovation and the promotion of Cameroonian technological entrepreneurship. Founded in 2018 by computer scientist Arielle Kitio, who is also its CEO, it aims to develop the technological skills of children aged 6 to 15. Doing will help them become tech innovators and entrepreneurs.
The center designs turnkey educational programs in national languages for schools and governments. The programs teach creative development, tech or scientific innovation, and renewable energies as well as introduce children to coding, robotics, 3D, artificial intelligence, and renewable energies.
It provides auditing and support services for national education systems to better prepare the next generation for the digital revolution by combining cultural identity, problem-solving, project-based approaches, and gamification.
CAYSTI also designs and popularizes smart, collaborative, and intuitive digital tools to facilitate egalitarian access to quality and creative STEM content.
To this end, it has developed projects such as abcCode, a playful and intuitive coding environment that develops creativity and easily introduces children to creative programming. It also developed CAYSTI Edu Kit, a stand-alone 4-in-1 kit that enables learners to intuitively master project design and computer coding without the need for an Internet connection.
Also, with its partners Orange, IBM, Developers Institute, and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, among others, it has launched tailor-made courses and developed international hackathons to expand and consolidate a worldwide community of creative minds.
It also organizes bootcamps, such as the CAYSTI Champion Camp, which rewarded three young champions from 3rd to 4th grade in 2020. The center has already trained and empowered over 28,000 children, 60% being girls. It has also trained over 500 teachers and signed partnerships with more than 24 schools.
Melchior Koba
Through its programs and services, Jongo Hub fosters the development of good and investible businesses and encourages the creation of a dynamic and innovative entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Jongo Hub is an innovation-based business support organization located in Silicon Mountain Buea, in the southwestern region of Cameroon. Founded in 2016 by Mokate Ashu, Ayeah Kermit Timngum, Enow Daniel Ashu, and Quinshie Miranda, its mission is to foster the development of high-impact innovative technology solutions.
It offers entrepreneurial support services, working with businesses to build a robust online presence and generate more conversions and revenue. Like most innovation centers and start-up incubators, it also offers coworking spaces to enable entrepreneurs to work in a friendly environment and collaborate with other wealth creators.
With Oneke John Etta Tabe as its executive Director, Jongo Hub -through its 6-month Jongo Hub Innovation Academy program- helps entrepreneurs and innovators strengthen and amplify the digital and business skills needed to survive in an increasingly competitive business environment.
The organization is a member of the AfriLabs network. Supported by Rinoo and Dufuna, it incubates businesses in various sectors including health and wellness, education and learning, and environment and green energy.
During the business incubation period, in addition to workspace, it offers entrepreneurs services like market research, user studies, ethnography and behavior change, prototype development, technical review, and product development, among others. Entrepreneurs also have access to a technology and manufacturing lab.
Jongo Hub's technology lab and multimedia studio is called Jongo Studios. It hosts a team dedicated to helping companies and SMEs establish their brands, effectively reach customers and create the desired impact.
Melchior Koba
After his studies, he honed his skills in the real estate sector by working for companies in France and Morocco. He then ventured into entrepreneurship by founding, with his brother, Agenz, a company dedicated to helping individuals make better real estate decisions.
Malik Belkeziz (photo) is the CEO and one of the co-founders of Moroccan estate appraiser Agenz. The Moroccan-born entrepreneur holds a master’s in engineering from French engineering school EST Paris.
In 2021, he founded Agenz, with his brother Badr Belkeziz, to provide reliable and instantaneous information on the real estate market. Doing so, he aims to help buyers make informed real estate decisions in a fast and timely manner.
The company deploys highly sophisticated and accurate real estate appraisal and analysis tools. It continually collects, analyzes, and structures real estate market data like offers, transactions, cadastral and socio-demographic data. Its appraisal solutions are powered by machine learning algorithms developed by its data scientists.
In February 2023, Malik Belkeziz and his team unveiled two new tools. One, available directly on its website, provides up to five years of historical real estate prices. The second tool is Agenz Pro, a mobile app that enables agents to manage their contacts with an integrated CRM (Customer Relationship Management), stay up to date, and respond to requests.
"The two new tools are perfectly in line with Agenz's mission, which is to streamline the real estate transaction process for users: on the one hand, by bringing transparency to the market for every project owner, whether seller, buyer or tenant, and on the other hand, by helping professionals showcase their expertise and prospect more effectively," says Agenz's CEO.
The latter’s professional career began in 2012 with a 4-month internship with Bouygues Construction. In 2014, he was hired as a real estate program manager for Nexity, a French real estate development company. About five years later, he joined real estate investment company Yamed Group as an asset manager.
Melchior Koba
InnovaLab GW, which was founded by young professionals, is the first innovation accelerator in Guinea-Bissau. Through its programs, training, and services, it promotes the development of the country's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
InnovaLab GW is a start-up accelerator founded by young Guinea-Bissau professionals Adulai Bary -a computer engineer with years of experience currently serving as its CEO- and Claudinecia Cabral -a senior project manager and accountant serving as the accelerator’s Resources and Programs Manager.
Since its inception in 2016, it has worked to foster the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by supporting entrepreneurs and startups in the fields of education, agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure. Its aim is "to [contribute] to the achievement of sustainable development in Africa, starting with Guinea-Bissau," it says on LinkedIn.
Through its co-working space, the accelerator offers a collaborative working environment where people meet, work, network, share ideas and collaborate on projects. Accessible at any time of the day, these fully-equipped spaces can accommodate up to 15 people and offer free Internet access.
They are designed for small and medium-sized businesses, freelancers, home workers, start-ups, digital designers, and other digital professionals whose work doesn't fit into a traditional office model.
InnovaLab GW also provides entrepreneurs with the coaching, tools, resources, and network to help them meet the myriad challenges that lie ahead. It offers mentoring and management training services to startups and new businesses.
It also connects entrepreneurs and business leaders with legal experts and other specialists and organizes exchange events between entrepreneurs from various sectors.
With the help of its partners, including AfriLabs, Seedstars, Yali Network, Next Einstein Forum, and Global Entrepreneurship Network, InnovaLab GW has created over 200 direct jobs, organized more than 300 events, and helped create more than 20 startups.
Melchior Koba
He is passionate about using technology to solve key challenges. After his studies and a few years after working in the United States, he returned to his native country, Senegal, where he launched a healthtech company to solve challenges.
Mouhamed Ndoye (photo) is a Senegalese computer scientist who graduated from the Texas McCombs School of Business with a master's in information technology and management. He is the CEO and one of the co-founders of medtech startup Tanél Health.
The startup, founded in 2020, builds modern platforms for African healthcare companies, notably pharmacies, and insurers. Its goal is to build an integrated tool that connects all healthcare stakeholders.
The company has developed easy-to-use, affordable, and reliable software to streamline pharmacy management. The software enables pharmacy owners to optimally manage inventory, monitor sales, manage cash flow, track inventory, and manage their teams. It features a modern interface compatible with all types of devices. From its dashboard, users have access to detailed reports revealing actionable data for better decision-making.
In 2019, the CEO of the startup behind it co-founded Anythng, a company that reinvents the way modern restaurants communicate with their customers. He served as the CEO of that company till 2020. Still, in 2019, he co-founded Tékkil, a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting and promoting Senegalese-American professionals to become leaders in their careers and communities. He also served as the CEO of that organization till 2022.
In 2021, he took part in the startup acceleration program On Deck. The serial entrepreneur entered the professional world, in June 2010, as a software engineer for Tech Corps, a U.S. tech company. From 2014 to 2018, he was a consultant for Cardinal Solutions, a U.S. IT solutions provider.
Melchior Koba
Kuassi Jimmy Kumako (photo) is a computer engineer with a degree from Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD). He is one of the co-founders of fintech start-up Moneco, which guides members of the African diaspora as they settle in France. It enables them to open an account, have access to an international payment card and make transfers anywhere in Europe.
His startup, founded in 2022, is a one-stop shop for all the financial needs of the African diaspora in Europe. It is the only startup in the S22 batch to be accepted by Y Combinator the same year it began operations. It was developed to help the diaspora save money by aggregating all their financial needs on one platform.
The Moneco platform enables immigrants settled in Europe to open a current account with local IBAN. It also gives them the possibility to top up their accounts via various methods, set up group saving schemes, send funds to Africa free of charge, and make international payments among other things.
Besides Moneco, Kuassi Jimmy Kumako also co-founded (in 2016), a classified ads platform for SMEs based in Francophone Africa. He is a member of the Benin Business Angel Network, an association of local and diaspora entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals willing to invest, open their networks, and guide entrepreneurs in the Beninese ecosystem.
In 2010, he co-founded SITBusiness, which coordinated the design and use of a geographic information system for non-governmental organizations in Senegal. In 2014, he also co-founded Dev Engine Labs, an agency that supports start-ups and banks in the design, creation, and optimization of digital services to meet their customers' needs.
A former consultant in finance, competitiveness, and innovation at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and ex-business associate at Google, he worked from 2020 to 2022 for Paystack, a fintech specializing in online and offline payments in Africa, as a developer.
Melchior Koba
Outbox Hub plays a key role in promoting tech entrepreneurship. Since its inception, it has established a solid reputation as a catalyst for innovation and an invaluable support for budding entrepreneurs.
Outbox Hub is a tech innovation space and incubator based in Uganda. Founded in 2012 by Richard Zulu, also its director, it helps new and aspiring African entrepreneurs keen to use technology to create high-growth businesses.
With its modern and inspiring collaborative workspace, Outbox Hub offers an environment that fosters creativity and idea sharing. Like all incubators, it does not provide just workspaces but also offers comprehensive incubation programs that help startups turn their ideas into sustainable businesses. Selected entrepreneurs benefit from personalized mentoring, specialized training, business consulting, and access to a network of experts and investors.
In collaboration with its partners NSSF Uganda, Mastercard Foundation, JICA, World Food Programme (WFP), USAID Uganda, AfriConEU, Ye! ITC Community, etc., the incubator launched several initiatives to promote youth involvement in the tech industry. These initiatives include UpAccelerate, a one-year initiative to support young entrepreneurs tackling the challenges of sexual and reproductive health in Uganda. There is also the NSSF Hi-Innovator learning lab for agricultural businesses launched on Thursday, June 15, 2023.
Outbox Hub also designs and develops technological solutions that enable organizations to accelerate their social impact. It works to increase the number of women and girls in technology through the conferences and training courses it organizes under its Women in Technology program.
Melchior Koba
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The software engineer develops fintech solutions for various purposes in the growing fintech industry in Africa.
Andry Randriamanamihaja (photo) is a Malagasy entrepreneur and computer engineer. He graduated from Polytechnic ISPM (Madagascar) in 1998, with a master's in business computing, software engineering, and artificial intelligence. He is also a certified digital finance practitioner.
In 2018, he officially launched the fintech company Vanilla Pay to dynamize the financial sector in his home country. The first tech solution he developed through Vanilla Pay is a mobile payment aggregator that enables business professionals to make online sales securely, conveniently, and automatically. The aggregator integrates all of Madagascar's mobile operators and is now used by universities, training centers, and e-businessmen. The aggregator claims nearly 50,000 active users with a peak of 3,000 financial transactions processed every minute.
Apart from the payment aggregator, the fintech company plans to launch an international payment solution geared toward tourists. The solution, called Vanilla Pay International, will be presented for the first time during the International Tourism Fair Madagascar that started yesterday, June 15. It is an e-wallet that enables tourists to directly send funds to residents’ mobile money accounts once in Madagascar.
Andry Randriamanamihaja, who was incubated by Orange Fab in 2019, tells We Are Tech Africa that he wants to turn Vanilla Pay into a unicorn valued at millions of euros within five years. The VivaTech 2022 participant already has some ideas to make that ambition a reality. He for instance plans to develop a blockchain-based system for real-time money exchange between islands in the Indian Ocean.
Before Vanilla Pay, Andry Randriamanamihaja founded Ariary.net in 2015, a start-up that aimed to revolutionize the financial landscape in Madagascar and democratize online payment.
His professional career began in 1998 with the IT company Advanced Information Systems, where he was an offshore project manager. From 2003 to 2009, he worked on a World Bank project to set up a Public Expenditure Management Information System.
Melchior Koba
In recent years, Cameroon has witnessed the multiplication of entrepreneurship support institutions. One of the main ones is the CDIC, launched by the government to promote tech innovation.
The Cameroon Digital Innovation Centre (CDIC) is a national incubator and center of excellence for digital research, development, and innovation. Launched on February 8, 2022, by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, it supports start-ups offering digital solutions in key sectors in Cameroon.
CDIC's role is to incubate and mentor digital project leaders, facilitate relations between start-ups and public administrations, assist start-ups in launching their activities, and stimulate job creation for graduates. It also supports start-ups in their search financing and strengthens technology watch and international cooperation in the digital field.
The center has a co-working space to encourage collaboration between start-ups. It organizes events, consulting sessions, mentoring programs, and other workshops run by leading digital companies, exclusively for tech start-ups. It also has connected classrooms ideal for all types of online training. The classrooms feature a digital screen, enabling more interactive and immersive training.
Thanks to its multimedia space, which includes a recording room and a spacious control room, the center provides entrepreneurs with the right technical conditions and an atmosphere conducive to strategic thinking and the development of audio and video content.
With its highly connected and secure data center, it guarantees digital sovereignty and data protection. It has a digital manufacturing laboratory equipped with several high-end 3D printers adapted to the needs of start-ups and for prototyping problems. It offers cloud computing solutions including several innovative services such as virtualization.
By creating that infrastructure, the Cameroonian government wants to build a genuine local digital industry able to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, professionalize skills in the digital field, and accelerate the country's digital transformation.
Melchior Koba
Silikin Village is an innovation hub dedicated to catalyzing growth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Its primary goal is to establish a digital entrepreneurship ecosystem that provides support to both local and international partners and entrepreneurs.
Silikin Village is an entrepreneurship and innovation hub established in the heart of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a platform dedicated to learning, entrepreneurship, and innovation, bringing together learners, project leaders, entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, and private and public partners interested in employability solutions.
As a catalyst for start-ups and businesses, it focuses on identifying talent and developing innovative products and services. It is led by Raymond Mendy who boasts decades of executive experience in the telecom, marketing, and even entrepreneurship industries.
Founded in 2020 by Texaf, a local company operating in the real estate, mining, and digital sectors, Silikin Village wants to become one of Africa’s largest entrepreneurial hubs. It provides entrepreneurs with modern office, training, meeting, and event spaces. The fully-equipped collaborative workspaces offer the opportunity to network with employees from other companies, including entrepreneurs, freelancers, and teleworkers.
The innovation hub offers short-term training courses focusing on technical and managerial skills. Its training programs include No-Code, developed in collaboration with Le Plan B, a no-code training platform. The program enables learners to create single and multi-page websites, generating interaction with their target audiences.
Apart from its training programs, Silikin Village also implements support programs to help entrepreneurs take their startups from the ideation to the acceleration phase. It allows them access to project structuring, strategic support, and its business network, in short to everything they need to develop their projects.
The innovation center collaborates with a multitude of institutions and agencies supporting innovation in Africa. These include Trace Congo, Kinshasa Digital Academy, Kinshasa Digital, Africa Green Power, Upsail Africa, and Ingenious City.
Melchior Koba
He is an economics expert with some 14 years of experience in the cereals industry. A few years ago, he co-founded an agritech company focused on the cereal segment.
Steve Hoda (photo) is a Beninese economist trained at the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi, where he graduated with a Master’s in Economics in 2009.
In 2017, he co-founded AfriRice, the agritech company that is now known as AfriCereal Group. His agritech company develops and implements innovative agriculture solutions, with a particular focus on cereal crops. It provides mechanization solutions for agricultural operations, offers technical assistance to farmers, and facilitates the connection of various stakeholders in the cereal industry.
The company aims to simplify agricultural tasks, minimize post-harvest losses, boost agricultural productivity, and improve farmers' incomes. With its solutions tailored to the African continent, AfriCereal Group is committed to providing safe and nutritious food worldwide. It works with non-governmental organizations and government institutions, assisting farmers in their agricultural campaigns from plowing to commercialization. It operates in the West African sub-region, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Benin.
Its CEO, Steve Hoda, is the head of the agriculture commission of She is Great Benin, a program that encourages girls in STEM. He is also the coordinator of the Beninese chapter of the International Alliance for Sustainable Development Goals (AIODD). The agritech entrepreneur is an economic expert for local media outlet Le Soleil Bénin and also in charge of the management of a mini rice mill installed in Kérou, Northwestern region of Benin.
Between 2010 and 2011, he worked as an assistant to the Deputy Secretary-General for budget/program monitoring and evaluation at the Beninese Ministry of Development, Economic Analysis, and Prospective.
In 2018, AfriRice was celebrated by the FAO as one of the 20 success stories of agricultural innovations able to reduce hunger. The team was also selected by the US African Development Foundation to receive about $100,000 in grants to mechanize agricultural operations in three major rice and soybean production areas in Benin.
Melchior Koba