TECH STARS (960)
After nine years in the banking and finance sector, he made a U-turn, in 2017, to develop his passion for new technologies. In partnership with various partners, he invested in artificial intelligence, earning several awards.
Youssef Bouyakhf is a Moroccan tech entrepreneur and co-founder of DeepEcho, a medical imaging startup.
Through DeepEcho -founded in 2020, Youssef combats infant and maternal maternity with a prenatal diagnosis solution that helps prevent potential pregnancy complications and reduce diagnostic errors. Thanks to high-performance deep learning algorithms, the solution makes ultrasound scans simpler yet more accurate.
"DeepEcho is a deep tech startup that focuses on the fourth Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality. We come from AI Lab and we work hand in hand with the best doctors in Morocco," Youssef Bouyakhf told Plug and Play in February 2022.
The tech enthusiast is particularly attracted by artificial intelligence given its usefulness in practical applications. In 2020, he co-founded Akumen IA, a consulting firm leveraging tech and data science to meet firms' and institutions’ needs. Three years earlier, he co-founded AIOX Labs, a Morocco-based start-up studio that uses data science and artificial intelligence to address businesses’ needs.
Before going into entrepreneurship full-time, Youssef worked for national and international institutions. His professional career started in 2009 when he was hired, as an audit intern, by the accounting firm Ernst & Young. Months later, he became an assistant Director of Marketing and Communication for the construction company Garanti Koza. In 2011, he joined BNP Paribas as a Business Analyst Intern in the structured debt department.
The following year, JP Morgan hired him as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst. Between 2015 and 2017, he was a principal investing associate for the financial services group Macquarie Group. Then, his growing interest in artificial intelligence pushed him to start side projects.
Thanks to DeepEcho, he is among the three winners of the 2022 Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East (POESAM). He is also one of the nominees for the Aviram Awards-Tech for Humanity 2022, a competition launched by the Aviram Family Foundation in partnership with Forbes. In September 2022, DeepEcho was selected for the pan-African program “Investing in Innovation,” funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Melchior Koba
As a media and ICT enthusiast, she has over 30 years of professional experience in mentoring, consulting, and venture financing. Her expertise has been honed through the many senior positions she has held in many countries.
Biola Alabi (photo) is a Nigerian businesswoman. Since September 13, 2022, she is a venture partner in Egypt-based venture capital firm Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF), which focuses on startup tech firms based in the MENA region. With CASF, Mrs. Biola is responsible for origination, investments, portfolio management, and investor relations.
For Biola, who is excited to bring “regional ecosystems together”, when the opportunity came to join CASF, the answer “was a no brainer.”
As an angel investor, advisor, and even member of the board of several startups, Biola Alabi is a global leader. Her certificate in Global Leadership and Public Policy, obtained at Harvard University in 2013, and her certificate in Transformational Leadership obtained at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School in 2016, illustrates her global leadership ambitions.
In January 2022, she co-founded Atika Ventures, a women-led venture capital firm. Since 2021, she is the deputy chair of the Lagos Angel Network, which is “committed to providing seed funding, mentoring and access to their business networks to Lagos area start-up entrepreneurs and their early-stage businesses.”
Her professional career began, in 1999, with Bigwords.com, a textbooks search engine. That year, she joined the online platform as a regional marketing manager. In 2003, she joined Sesame Workshop as regional director for sub-Saharan Africa. Five years later, she was appointed general manager for Africa for South African TV channel M-Net Africa.
In 2015, she established the Grooming for Greatness Foundation, a scholarship and mentoring program for promising young talent and entrepreneurs. She then founded Biola Alabi Media and Entertainment, a production company where she is the Senior Advisor and Executive Producer.
In addition to her numerous occupations, she is also a non-executive director of telecom service provider Monty Mobile Holding, since 2015. She is also a non-executive director of Unilever Nigeria Plc, which specializes in the manufacturing of consumer goods.
Melchior Koba
Over the past nine years, he has been active in youth education and counseling. His expertise in that path was strengthened by the numerous associative and consulting positions he held during all those years.
Omar El-Barbary (photo) is the co-founder and CEO of OBM Education, an edtech startup that provides academic guidance, training, and professional development courses to young graduates and non-graduates. Thanks to online and face-to-face tools, the startup -founded in 2013- guides young people into sectors and professions most suited to their skills and potential.
In August 2022, Omar successfully led a six-figure raise, from EdVentures, for OBM Education.
The new “investment is quite strategic for our ambitious expansion plans as we will use it to launch our new application, Taleb, which will enable us to provide extended services for our users and to fulfill our mission in ensuring an exceptional career advising experience for the Egyptian students,” Omar said at the time.
The new app, Taleb, has already been launched. It enables access to a wide range of services for students, teachers, and institutions. It also allows students to take remote courses, improving the quality of education.
Apart from his entrepreneurial career, Omar El-Barbary also has a fulfilling and enriching associative and project management career. In February 2015, he was appointed Career Development Manager for the US-based NGO Population Council. Concurrently, he was also the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports’ Youth Skills Project Manager.
In 2017, in Russia, he was the Egyptian representative of Future Team Finland, a network of young professionals working to change the world. Two years later, he became the contractual operations manager for BiznEX Egypt, a trade show for investment and commercial agencies in Egypt and the Middle East. In 2020, he became President and CEO of IQ E-Learning, an educational website.
Melchior Koba
After a decade-long professional career in institutional private equity in the United States and then in South Africa, she created her private equity firm to support African tech firms with regional and global exposure.
Samantha Pokroy (photo) is a South African finance professional and founder/CEO of Sanari Capital, a private equity firm founded in 2013. Through her private equity firm, she invests in African tech firms with regional and global exposure.
“After many years working with founder-run businesses, and coming from an entrepreneurial family / being an entrepreneur myself, I understand a founder’s perspective when considering various growth, funding, ownership, and wealth realization choices. Combined with experience from leading private equity houses, we offer high-quality private equity solutions customized for the needs of the founder- and family-run businesses. Solutions cater to the needs of companies at various stages of growth and development, as well as the differing needs of the founders,” her LinkedIn about section reads.
On September 8, 2022, Samantha announced the first close, at ZAR475 million (about US$27 million) of Sanari 3S Growth, Sanari Capital’s third fund that targets between ZAR1.2bn to 1.7bn ( about US$70-100 million) to “invest in established and growing companies in industries.”
Currently, Samantha Pokroy is a director on the board of the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA). She is also a member of the boards of tech companies Edulife, LightWare, Sensor Networks, and Snapt which secured investments from Sanari Capital.
Before venturing into entrepreneurship with Sanari Capital, she acquired years of professional experience, which began in 1999. That year, she joined the independent strategy consulting group Stern Stewart & Co as an associate analyst. In 2003, she worked as a summer associate in JP Morgan’s financial sponsors group. Two years later, she was appointed vice-president of investment banking firm Kipp Reese Koldyke (now Winona Capital). Then from 2006 to 2013, she worked as a principal for Ethos Private Equity.
Melchior Koba
He strongly believes that empowering African smallholder farmers will create more value and be helpful for the whole population.
Joseph Ogwal (photo) is a Ugandan agricultural entrepreneur and the founder/CEO of Agro Supply Ltd, an agritech company founded in 2017. Through his agritech company, he developed and operates a mobile savings platform that enables farmers to save and invest in seeds, inputs, and equipment. The platform is accessible via a USSD code to reach everyone, even those without smartphones.
“[...] The Global population is rising which requires 60% more food to feed nine billion people by 2050. Farmers can be and should be a key part of the solution. If farmers can manage their cash and invest their resources in their farms, they will not only increase food production but will also pave their own and their families’ way out of poverty. With access to a mobile savings tool, we know farmers can self-finance the inputs and training they need to provide for their families and to break the cycle of poverty,” says Joseph Ogwal.
He also offers, through the agritech company, vital information and agronomy training remotely (either via SMS or an AI system) or in person. He also networks his community of some 15,000 farmers (currently) with large buyers to facilitate production sales at better prices.
Before Agro Supply Ltd, Joseph Ogwal, who holds a bachelor's in Agronomy and Crop Science, sharpened his agricultural expertise while working as a regional value chain manager for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
He is an alumnus of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program, the Young African Leaders Initiative, and a 2018 Swedish Institute Management Programme Africa Fellow. He is also among the entrepreneurs whose startups have been selected for the Social & Inclusive Business Camp 2022.
Melchior Koba
The tech entrepreneur now heads two growing startups. Over the past four years, the finance professional who believes that ICTs can help Africa address some of its key issues has invested in several platforms and ventures.
Nkombou Aaron Munga (photo) is a Cameroonian serial entrepreneur and the CEO/co-founder of Mungenow Technologies, a B2C tech startup founded in 2019. The B2C startup has developed several platforms to meet business needs in Cameroon and Africa as a whole. For instance, Mungenow Properties facilitates real estate operations (sales and acquisitions) everywhere on the continent. Mungenow Trips assists in the e-visa process for some destinations while Mungenow Classified helps sell or buy various items.
“Africa’s tech is the next big opportunity and Mungenow Technologies is leading the way,” the tech entrepreneur who holds an advanced diploma in Accounting and Business said in 2020 when Mungenow Technologies was launching its seed crowdfunding round.
In August 2022, Aaron expanded Mungenow Technologies' service offering by launching Mungenow Stays, which allows users to book guest rooms in Cameroon’s largest cities right from the comfort of their homes. The long-term goal is to go continental and to guarantee great service, the platform verifies every host establishment before listing them.
Aaron Munga is also the founder and CEO of Swychr Global, a London-based fintech startup founded in 2021. The start-up offers a mobile application that facilitates diaspora-Africa and intra-African money transfers with its currency called the Purple Coins.
The serial entrepreneur also co-founded Jump The Q, an online grocery store that officially shut down on June 1st, 2022, after over three years of operation.
Before diving into the entrepreneurship world, Aaron Munga worked in the United Arab Emirates for KIZA Restaurant & Lounge as a general accountant in 2015. In February 2016, he joined the publishing company DMG Events as an accountant.
Melchior Koba
The work tech he founded offers many services that contribute to youth empowerment. Besides that, he coordinates many initiatives promoting entrepreneurship.
Vivens Uwizeyimana (photo) is the founder and CEO of UmuravaWork, a work tech startup founded in 2020. Through his startup, he provides businesses with an AI-based talent marketplace with vetted freelancers, a workshop outsourcing, and an EdTech platform.
UmuravaWork is “leveraging on the outsourcing, remote working, and freelancing industries to create massive digital jobs for African youth,” Vivens told The News Times in August 2022.
“This model complements the existing methodology of only thinking about local full-time jobs,” he added.
Aside from his CEO duties at UmaravaWork, Vivens is also a business coach for Kigali-based consulting agency Innovation Creation Studio, since February 2022. Since November 2021, he is also an ambassador of the Berlin-based Westerwelle Foundation for International Understanding, which aims to create “opportunities for young people in emerging and developing countries.”
In 2018, he co-founded AdvanceRwanda, an NGO formerly known as Impano Developer Initiative Organization. From 2018 to 2019, he was an assistant academic director for the higher education program Kepler. Since 2022, he is the president of OVO Business Club Rwanda, an entrepreneurship support initiative.
In August 2022, his work tech was selected among the 45 African beneficiaries of the Future of Work Africa Accelerator program hosted by Village Capital. Two years earlier, the tech entrepreneur won $5,000 during the Youth Challenge Program hosted by Generation Unlimited Rwanda.
Melchior Koba
As she explains, she entered the agritech sector to help farmers improve their income. The choice proves sound as she is now a multiple award winner thanks to her ventures.
Anaporka Adazabra (photo) is a Ghanaian tech entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of agritech company Farmio Limited. Her agritech company, launched in July 2019, provides digital solutions for greenhouse farming. Thanks to its farm management software, it provides users with real-time access to agronomic information essential for crop selection and planning.
The software also assists in resources, operations, and finance management. Thanks to its Greenhouse Automation Kit, Farmio Limited also enables farmers to remotely monitor their greenhouses and crops. It also provides an online marketplace for its clients to sell their crops.
For Adazabra, who also offers greenhouse farming training, the aim is to "help new and existing greenhouse farmers improve their production and income."
She launched Farmio Limited a few months before taking on the role of business development manager at Inkeit Innovation, an IT company she co-founded in 2019. The said company specializes in website and software development, and language (French and German) teaching.
Before embarking on her entrepreneurial journey, Anaporka Adazabra worked at Dansyn Innovation Social Organization's web technology and social media office between 2018 and 2021. Thanks to her entrepreneurial ventures, she won the 2022 Best Female Entrepreneur Award at the TotalEnergies Startupper of the Year Challenge. She is also a finalist for the Best Women-Led Agribusiness Award at the AgriHack Pitch sponsored by the Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) and Heifer International.
Melchior Koba
With over 10 years of digital transformation consulting experience, his mission is to contribute to the emergence of innovative and impactful entrepreneurs who will support socioeconomic development in Niger.
Maman Rouffahi Koabo (photo) is a Nigerien entrepreneur and computer network and systems engineer. He leads, since July 2018, the SME Incubator Centre of Niger (CIPMEN). The incubator was founded in 2013, as the result of a public-private partnership. Currently, it claims some 222 high socioeconomic impact businesses incubated and more than 7,900 people trained.
Under his leadership, in 2020, CIPMEN launched the Smart Villages for rural growth and digital inclusion project, which aims to connect 15,000 villages to digital tools and public administrations for easy access to electronic services. Also, in 2022, the incubator set offices in Dosso, expanding its national presence to seven administrative regions out of eight in the country.
In addition to his duties as the CEO of CIPMEN, Maman is also the CEO of French tech company Kinnov Sarl, since 2017. He began his professional career, in 2009, working as an infrastructure migration consultant for Safran, an international high-tech group that operates in the aerospace and defense sectors. He later joined tech company Exakis as an infrastructure consultant. In 2013 he was hired by RTE (Réseau de transport d'électricité) as an IT project manager.
In 2017, Indosuez Wealth Management appointed him as a technical architect and project manager. In parallel, he was already managing Kinnov Sarl. He then did five months (April to August 2018) at AXA as a DLP & RGPD cyber security consultant.
Melchior Koba
His ambition has always been to contribute to financial inclusion in Africa. After his stint at the online betting and gaming company 1960bet, he embarked on an entrepreneurship journey, becoming the co-founder of two fintech companies.
Kingsley Nwose (photo) is a Nigerian economist and entrepreneur. In August 2020, he co-founded fintech platform Joovlin with Yusuf Olalere and Lucky Mark, two fellow students he met during his time at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology. Through Joovlin, he provides B2B solutions helping businesses manage their stocks and boost sales.
“We noticed that lots of people have started selling on social media – WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. […] Over 90 percent of them do not stock any goods, they only post images of trending products and source them when orders are placed. They walk from store to store picking up the ordered items, and also manually find logistics personnel to deliver the orders. [...],” he told Disrupt Africa in September 2022.
According to the media, “Joovlin decided to work on making this disjointed process more efficient, and early uptake has been strong.” Meanwhile, Kingsley explains that his startup enables “low-budget underserved retailers to sell with zero capital investment.” “We are also providing a direct-to-retailer tool for enterprises. We help them connect directly with their retailers,” he added.
Kingsley holds a degree in database and server administration from the Indian talent development corporation NIIT Pune. In 2015, he got a Master’s in Monetary Economics from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Two years later, he received an entrepreneurship certificate from Bocconi University, Italy.
The entrepreneur also co-founded Nigerian fintech Bewla in 2017. Currently, he is a Tony Elumelu Foundation and Yali Africa business mentor. He began his professional career, in 2013, as the area manager of Nigerian gambling company 1960bet. After years as the business developer of Bewla, he joined MEST Africa as a product designer and business developer. He co-founded Joovlin after leaving MEST Africa.
In August 2022, he became one of the winners of the Seedstars Migration Entrepreneurship Prize, which rewards socially-driven businesses that “enhance the economic inclusion of migrants in the Middle East and Africa ”
Melchior Koba
More...
He co-built his travel tech Tripesa from the ashes of another startup: Roundbob. The new startup has already earned the trust of several investors.
David Gonahasa (photo) is a Ugandan economist and entrepreneur. He is also the CEO of travel tech Tripesa, which he co-founded in 2021 with Thomas Karugaba and Raymond Byaruhanga.
Tripesa was born out of the ashes of travel booking platform Roundbob during the coronavirus pandemic, which affected the whole world. It offers African SMEs operating in the tourism industry a solution to optimize their operations and improve their profitability.
“Small businesses must be able to package tourism and digitally distribute a splendid tourism experience for it to sell, or else they stand to lose the market to the few bigger players. [...] What Tripesa is doing is leveling the playing field, enabling small operators to leverage technology to escape the market limitations and scale their businesses,” David told TechCabal in August 2022 when Tripesa closed an undisclosed pre-seed round to scale across Africa.
Apart from his passion for the African tourism industry, David Gonahasa is also a wildlife conservation enthusiast. In 2021, he co-founded The Naturalist, a conservation company leveraging technology to protect wildlife resources. Through his conservation company, he launched the Home of the Gorillas project, which aims to create additional revenues to complement the tourist trekking income that remains the main source of financing the Mountain Gorilla conservation.
In 2018, he participated in the Alibaba e-founders fellowship program. A year earlier, he won the Innovator of the Year Prize during the MTN Innovations Awards. David is a seasoned entrepreneur with several ventures under his belt but, he also has an extensive professional career, which started in 2007. That year, after being the business development director of the e-business company Mediaflower Uganda he co-founded, he joined advertising company Creaxion Rwanda as an account director. The following year, he assumed services as a client services manager for the online marketing agency MAAD Advertising. He later joined Real Marketing Uganda, another marketing agency, as its strategic director before assuming office as the chief marketing officer of universal payment platform Mobicash Africa, in 2011. Some years later, he made a brief stint as a senior consultant for business manager SMEHUB.
Melchior Koba
As an active actor in the African venture capital ecosystem, he has more than eleven years of experience in the field. His resume boasts an international experience with the likes of asset manager Credit Suisse.
Bruce Nsereko-Lule (photo) is a Nigerian investor and one of the three general partners of Seedstars Africa Ventures, since September 6, 2022.
In his new function, he will help Seedstars deploy more funds to support its target businesses, notably tech startups in fast-growing sectors in Africa. He will contribute the experience and network he built as a venture capital investor on the continent.
After his appointment as a general partner of the pan-African fund, which invested some US$5.3 million on the continent, Bruce told TechCrunch that Seedstars Africa Ventures would continue to provide financial and technical support to innovative companies.
Seedstars Africa Ventures “will keep funding until the business [supported] has reached proper growth, and probably hit profitability and has opportunities to exit and further scale,” he added.
Before joining Seedstars, the venture capital investor was an investment manager for Chandaria Capital, a VC firm based in Nairobi, Kenya. With Chandaria Capital, he led early-stage investments in 38 firms operating in Africa (for most of them), South America, and Asia.
From 2020 to 2022, Bruce Nsereko-Lule was a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of BFA Global's Catalyst Fund Inclusive Digital Commerce Accelerator. He also served on the executive committee of the food distributor Get It. In 2020, he was, for about three months, a member of the advisory board of the publishing and media company Start-up Guide.
He began his professional career, as an intern, at the Kenyan investment bank Dyer & Blair Investment Bank in 2004. He then became an analyst at asset manager Credit Suisse in London between 2008 and 2014, before joining the investment committee of Kenya-based venture capital firm Ramure in 2019.
Melchior Koba
The former restaurant owner started a ride-hailing business in his native country to provide users with a safe and convenient transportation service. Thanks to the solution, he was recently selected for a Google program that will allow him to reach new horizons.
Habtamu Tadesse (photo) is an Ethiopian tech entrepreneur who founded Zaytech, a startup behind the ride-hailing solution ZayRide, in 2016. With his ride-hailing solution, available as a mobile app -for Android and iOS devices, he connects users to taxi drivers. Apart from the mobile app, the solution is also accessible through a call center, that allows users to request delivery or ambulance dispatch services.
With ZayRide, Habtamu Tadesse is contributing his experience to solve a crucial insecurity challenge. Indeed, the tech entrepreneur, who was once an Uber driver in the U.S., is well aware of how insecure it could be waiting for public transport services in his native country. So, he decided to adapt his Uber experience to local realities.
“We are trying to address the existing unsafe, expensive, and inconvenient means of transportation by rolling out an innovative taxi-hailing application designed to work on Africa’s slow Internet,” he told Tech In Africa in 2018.
Less than two years after inception, Zayride already had 30,000 users, earning ZayTech several accolades including the title of the startup with the biggest market impact potential by Traction Camp Nairobi in 2017. ZayTech has also been selected to participate in the 2022 cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. That selection entitles it to US$50,000 to 100,000 in funding and a 6-month training program to support its development.
Before launching ZayTech, Habtamu Tadesse was the owner of Basha Restaurant and Bar, a Boston-based restaurant he co-founded with his brother. They sold the restaurant in 2015 to fund the mobility project ZayRide.
Melchior Koba
With more than 20 years of managerial experience in the information technology sector, he has worked for national and international firms. Since 2021, he is overseeing the destinies of Algeria’s startup accelerator.
Sid Ali Zerrouki (photo) is an Algerian information security engineer. He is also the managing director of Algeria Venture, the first state-owned startup accelerator in Algeria. In that capacity, his missions include identifying and supporting local high-potential innovators whose success would make Algeria a tech hub and transform its economy.
During an interview with French TV channel Euronews, he explained that Algeria Venture’s goal is to give tech innovators the required resources to hit markets with quality solutions as well as attract local and international investors that would help them develop their businesses. In line with that goal, in April 2022, in Algier, the state accelerator launched the first cohort of Boost Competencies Entrepreneurship Program (BCEP), an accelerator program implemented in partnership with Google for Startups Accelerator Middle East and North Africa. The program boosted the capacities of the 14 startups, from seven Algerian wilayas (regions), that participated in that first cohort.
Sid Ali holds an information security engineering degree from the University of Constantine 1. He also has a master's degree in business administration from Paris Dauphine University and an executive MBA in international business and commerce from the Sorbonne Business School.
Before his appointment as the managing director of Algeria Venture (in 2021), he was a senator of the World Business Angels Investment Forum, from September 2020 to April 2021. His professional career started in 1998 when he became the IT project manager of Sonatrach, the state-owned oil company in Algeria. In 2001, he joined oil drilling equipment provider Schlumberger as an SDP Driller (assistant driller).
From 2002 to 2009, Sid Ali Zerrouki was OTA Algeria’s network rollout manager. He was later assigned to head the rollout and deployment department at VEON, in Burundi. In 2012, he became a consultant for Kenayn TIM consulting and then joined Huawei Algeria, in 2013, as the senior director of services.
After a stint at Millicom in Tanzania from 2014 to 2016, he joined Cybercom Group as a senior audit program manager. In December 2016, Sid Ali Zerrouki was recruited as Director of Operations for the Algerian company Confidential. The following year, Revotech appointed him as managing director before his appointment to lead Rail Telecom Spa from 2018 to 2021.
Melchior Koba