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The tech and business enthusiast wants to make iiDENTIFii one of the global remote authentication leaders. Several awards have already welcomed his efforts.
Gur Geva (photo) is a South African tech entrepreneur and founder of iiDENTIFii. His startup, launched in 2017, specializes in digital identification, biometric verification, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
For Gur Geva, iiDENTIFii is the most appropriate response to current security issues faced by individuals and companies. He wants to make the startup a global reference in remote authentication. For that purpose, he succeeded in getting iiDENTIFii integrated into the Microsoft Global Partner Network, a coveted professional network bringing together credible companies that provide identity verification services to multinational clients in the banking, insurance, retail, e-commerce, healthcare, gaming, and education sectors.
In September 2022, he raised US$15 million in growth capital to expand the identity protection business in Africa. “We’re excited to put the investment to work as we close in on our goal of authenticating every face in Africa. With this new funding and the networks of Arise, Sanari, and Bill – we are confident to continue our mission of stopping identity theft in Africa,” Gur Geva said after the raise led by Arise, one of Africa’s leading investment companies.
Before founding iiDENTIFIi, Gur Geva first launched InDox, “a professional document collection service for the largest 200 Credit Providers in South Africa.” He led InDOx, as the CEO, up till May 2019.
Thanks to iiDENTIFii, he won the Digital Innovation Award at the 2019 Sunday Times Top 100 Company Awards. He also won the Best of the Show Award at the Finovate Europe 2020 Conference, and the AI Leader of the Year 2020 Award during the AfricaTech Awards.
In 2021, iiDENTIFIi was named the Best Enterprise Solution in the MTN Business App of the Year Awards. That year, iiDENTIFIi was also recognized as the New and Emerging Independent Software Vendor Partner of the Year in the Microsoft South Africa Partner of the Year Awards.
Melchior Koba
Over the past nine years, she built her event management experience with companies in various industries, including finance, telecommunications, and media.
Folayemi Agusto (photo) is the co-founder and CEO of tix.africa, a Nigerian ticketing startup founded in 2019. Through tix.africa, she offers digital services to help organizations, companies, and fair and festival organizers ensure the success of their virtual or live events.
The services offered include tools to promote events and collect payment as well as ticketing platforms. The service ecosystem simplifies logistics processes for tix. africa’s clients and boosts their profitability.
Tix is born out of personal experience. Indeed, in 2017, the startup’s cofounders (Folayemi Agusto and Nosa Oyegun) organized the third edition of the EatDrinkFestival -a food and drink festival- in Lagos, but “things didn’t go very well.”
“There were tens of thousands of people and we didn’t have a single piece of data about any one of them. Then, the poor network made making payments for food and drink an extreme sport,” the tix.africa co-founder explains.
That frustrating experience led them to enter the event management sector.
In September 2022, Folayemi announced the launch of a new service, Tix Box Office, to offer better event management support. The new service allows event managers and organizers to set up online storefronts to sell their tickets and products. “Before today, you could only list one event per page on Tix, and now on a creator’s Box Office, you can see events they have coming up,” she announced on Linkedin.
The tech entrepreneur entered the professional world, in 2013, the same year she obtained her BA in Sociology at the University of Virginia. That year, she joined Airtel Nigeria as an event and sponsorship assistant. Two years later, she was hired, as a research analyst, by SIM Capital Alliance.
She later became the guest relations and events coordinator of the job placement network Andela. In 2018, she was promoted to the position of travel experience manager.
Melchior Koba
Through his fintech ClinicPesa, he is committed to improving the living conditions of local populations. His commitment has already earned him a selection to participate in two international accelerator programs.
Onyancha Chrispinus (photo) is a Ugandan computer engineer and tech entrepreneur. In 2016, he cofounded ClinicPesa, a fintech startup that offers micro-loans to enable access to quality healthcare.
The startup he heads, as the CEO, developed a digital platform that allows users to save money to be used for healthcare needs. The funds saved can be used to settle medical bills or purchase drugs and medical devices in partner hospitals and pharmacies when needed.
It also developed ClinicPesa Mama’s, a savings platform dedicated exclusively to maternal health. It allows expectant mothers or parents to save money, via mobile money, to prepare for their baby's arrival. The funds can be used to purchase a baby’s trousseau, pay for medical transportation or bills, etc.
Its co-founder holds a Master’s in software engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne obtained in 2015. In 2019, he secured the D-Lab Scale-Ups Fellowship grant, which aims to support “local entrepreneurs bringing poverty-alleviating products and services to emerging markets at scale.” He integrated the labor market in 2011 when he was recruited, as a software engineer, by creativeDNA, a Ugandan tech company specializing in the development of mobile and digital solutions.
After a promotion to the position of a senior software engineer in 2012, he became the company's managing director four years later. Cumulatively, he was an instructor and author with UK IT company Packt, until March 2017.
This year, his startup is among the 60 startups that will participate in the second cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund for Africa. It is also one of 30 early-stage and growth-stage startups that will benefit from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded pan-African Investing in Innovation (i3) program.
Melchior Koba
After his higher education in Germany, he moved back to his native country to improve the quality of mobility offerings. He specifically focused on an industry crowded with amateurs: motorcycle taxis.
Patrick Timani (photo) is a Cameroonian embedded system engineer and tech entrepreneur. In 2015, he graduated from the University of Pforzheim, in Germany. He also holds a microfinance expert certification from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
In 2017, he co-founded BeeGroup, a mobility startup he currently heads as the chief executive officer. His startup offers two services through its mobile app (available for Android and iOS devices).
The first service is Bee Delivery, which facilitates last-mile delivery. It covers the logistics chain and makes short, medium, and long-distance delivery with its trucks, gaining the confidence of several national and international companies in Cameroon.
The second service, which sets Patrick Timani apart in the local startup ecosystem, is Bee Moto, a motorcycle-hailing service. On its website, BeeGroup explains that Bee Moto aims to formalize the motorcycle taxi industry in French-speaking Africa.
“Motorcycle is one of the most popular modes of transport in Cameroon and other French-speaking countries, but the motorcycle transport sector is not organized. We believe that we can make a big change by offering a new, modern service that would make motorcycle transport convenient and comfortable. We are pleased to partner with Yango, an international service, to give all Cameroonians the opportunity to arrive at their destinations on time and safely,” Patrick indicated in August 2022, when signing a partnership agreement with mobility startup Yango, in Douala.
In 2020, Bee signed a partnership agreement with Baloon Insurance. It thus became the agent in charge of delivering insurance certificates to Baloon Insurance clients. In early September 2022, it secured a contract with OneAllSports - Cameroon’s national football team’s new equipment manufacturer- becoming the official dealer of OnAllSports products in Cameroon.
In June 2022, after a successful experience in Cameroon, where the mobility start-up is becoming more attractive by the day, it launched its activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Before his Bee Group experience, Patrick Timani honed his skills working for renowned companies. In 2013, he completed a one-year internship at the German energy company Siemens. The following year, he worked as an intern at the optronics, system technologies, and image exploitation application development company Fraunhofer IOSB. His startup is among the 60 beneficiaries of the 2022 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Melchior Koba
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
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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