TECH STARS (1006)
After an extensive experience with several health institutions in England and the United States, Abasi Ene-Obong returned to Nigeria to advance the fight against cancer in Africa. His achievements are gaining increasing recognition and earning him numerous accolades.
Abasi Ene-Obong (photo) is a Nigerian doctor and founder of biotech firm 54Gene, which wants to ‘bridge the disparity gap in genomics data.’ Using translational research and advanced molecular diagnostics, the biotech launched in 2019 also helps fight cancer in Africa and around the world.
“Though the arc of conducting early research through drug approval can belong in biotech, we have taken the approach to building the backbone that is needed for short-term successes to long-term gains that provide better healthcare delivery and treatment outcomes from diseases,” Eno-Obong told Techcrunch.
A Ph.D. holder (in cancer biology from the University of London), the founder has a master's in Human Molecular Genetics (in 2009) from the Imperial College, London. Before founding 54Gene, Abasi Ene-Obong worked as a cancer researcher and published a paper on pancreatic cancer immunology in the Gastroenterology Journal. From 2014 to 2015, he was a research director and consultant for IMS Health (now known as IQVIA), a U.S.-based company offering information, services, and technology in the healthcare industry.
Months later, he became a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) senior associate and healthcare industry advisor in the U.S. In 2017, he spent months as a Lead Consultant for Nigeria's Strategic Health Development Plan. In 2019, Quartz Africa named him one of the most innovative entrepreneurs on the African continent of the year. In September 2020, months after the launch of 54Gene, Abasi Ene-Obong was named in Fortune’s 40 under 40 most influential people in healthcare. The same year, his startup, 54Gene, received the Best Healthcare Technology Solution award from AppsAfrica.
In September 2021, 54Gene raised US$25 million during a series B round led by Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund. The operation, which was the third organized by the startup since its creation, brought the overall volume of funding secured to over US$45 million. It was aimed at expanding “54gene's capabilities in sequencing, target identification and validation, and precision medicine clinical trials enabling drug discovery in Africa for both Africans and the global population,” and enabling the startup to “begin its expansion across the African continent.”
"It's truly incredible to witness the impact of African scientists in global research and it is critical to global health that this continues. We want to scale our contribution to global drug discovery by extensively developing life science capabilities on the continent and this additional capital will catalyze our endeavors," Ene-Obong said
Three months later, he created the African Center for Translational Genomics (ACTG), a genetic database managed by the Non-Communicable Diseases-Genetic Heritage Study consortium.
Melchior Koba
Over the past seven years, Victor Mapunga has been involved in several digital projects. Since 2018, he has been promoting the use of digital identities through FlexID Technologies.
Victor Mapunga (photo) is a Zimbabwean serial entrepreneur, software developer, and CEO of FlexID Technologies, a blockchain startup promoting the use of digital technologies. Through FlexID, the young tech entrepreneur has already served several clients in Africa and Asia. For instance, last year, he provided digital identities to 50,000 patients in Zimbabwe in the framework of a program initiated by healthtech Ubuntu Clinics to improve care and follow-up for its users.
For Mapunga, “harnessing the power of technology in the healthcare sector is paramount in driving cost down and most importantly improving patient outcomes.”
The serial entrepreneur has an extensive and diversified entrepreneurship career. In 2014, he founded GreyMarge Investments to invest in technology, finance, healthcare, logistics, and infrastructure. Months later, he launched an edtech, iLearnfb. In May 2017, he co-founded JustBuy ZW, a mobile app allowing users to post classified ads.
With multiple certifications in technology entrepreneurship earned in the U.S. and the U.K., the Zimbabwean entrepreneur is determined to use digital technologies to foster economic and social development in Africa.
That drive earned him a spot in the World Economic Forum's 2021 cohort of technology pioneers and opened for him doors to international meetings such as the Blockchain Africa Conference where he was invited to speak last year. He will participate again in 2023.
Melchior Koba
At the end of his University studies, Perseus Mlambo wanted to pursue a legal career but his entrepreneurial drive took the lead, taking him to the African fintech segment. With Union54, he intends to shorten settlement time and decentralize payment card issuance.
Zambian tech entrepreneur Perseus Mlambo (photo) is the co-founder of Union54, a fintech startup decentralizing the issuance of virtual and physical payment cards. Thanks to its API, the startup allows firms to issue branded payment cards without third-party processors or banks.
He launched Union54 in 2021, with Alessandra Martini, to help SMEs easily offer added-value services (loyalty, discount, or credit cards) to their clients. He wants to save them from the painstaking processes he went through to issue debit cards for Zazu, the startup he founded in 2015 to help clients better manage their income.
Perseus is an LLB graduate from Nottingham Law School. He is also a former Ethics Office Support Staff at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He estimates that it is important to create an alternative debit card issuing network to reduce Africa’s dependence on foreign solutions. With the foreign solutions currently used, Africa can be affected by political decisions and sanctions, he believes.
In April 2022, his startup raised US$12 million in a seed extension round led by Tiger Global. Participating investors included Vibe VC, Earl Grey Capital, and Packy McCormick’s Not Boring Capital. With the proceeds, Union54 will expand its coverage. Currently, the startup claims more than 500,000 virtual cards issued and hours saved for its users.
Melchior Koba
His about ten years of professional experience with an end-to-end solution provider in the utility industry prepared him for the tasks ahead. With Pylon, he wants to end losses and frauds in the utility industry.
Ahmed Ashour (photo, right) is an Egyptian entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of Pylon, a startup helping utility companies fight frauds.
Co-founded in 2017 with Omar Mohamed Radi (photo, left), Pylon is a smart public infrastructure management startup, which collects data, analyzes them, and pinpoints places where there is possibly theft or production loss in the supply network. It also helps automatizes the invoicing process, mitigating errors and financial losses for utility companies.
With Pylon, Ahmed Ashour wants to reduce water loss by 22% in emerging markets -currently, emerging markets lose more than 45 million metric cubes of water daily- and help provide water to more than 40 million people and reduce CO2 emissions by one gigaton by 2035.
To fulfill those ambitions, the tech entrepreneur secured US$19 million from angel investors, investment funds, and venture capitalists. Thanks to the funds secured, his startup will enter new markets apart from its current ones, which are namely Egypt and the Philipines. He specifically targets emerging markets in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Asour has over ten years of professional experience in the utility industry. After his Bachelor of business administration from the American University in Cairo, in 2009, he climbed up the ladder in that industry up till 2018.
Almost all of his professional career was spent with El Sewedy Electrometer Group, a provider of end-to-end metering solutions and services to water, electricity, and gas companies. He held several positions including sales and marketing director.
In 2016, while still working for El Sewedy Electrometer Group, Asour became a director of the board of Prime Alliance AISBL, an alliance that supports the development of smart metering and grid solutions. In 2021, he was one of the participants of the Y Combinator accelerator’s S21 cohort.
Melchior Koba
In about eight years, he succeeded in making Farmerline a choice partner for Ghanaian smallholder farmers. His ambition is to do the same in the whole of Africa in the coming years.
Ghanaian entrepreneur Alloysius Attah (photo, left) is the co-founder and CEO of AgTech Farmerline. Co-founded in 2013 with Emmanuel Owusu Addai (photo, left), his startup supports farmers’ growth and performance with a combination of digital and logistics tools. It specifically improves farmers’ access to market information, farm inputs, and funds.
The tech entrepreneur graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 2012, with a BSc in Natural Resource Management. In 2021, he obtained the Standford Seed Transformation Program Certificate from the Standford University Graduate School of Business.
Thanks to Farmerline, Alloysius Attah was one of the seven finalists for the 2014 Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards. In 2015, he was a guest lecturer at the Alliance for Science Global Leadership Fellows Program, Cornell University, New York. The same year, his dynamism secured Farmerline a spot in the European Union’s CTA Top 20 Innovations that Benefit Smallholder Farmers. In November 2021, the young entrepreneur was one of the speakers invited to the Bloomberg New Economy Forum organized under the theme “Feeding the World: Agriculture and the Health of the Planet.”
In about eight years, he succeeded in making Farmerline a choice partner for Ghanaian smallholder farmers. His ambition is to do the same in the whole of Africa in the coming years. For that purpose, in April 2022, he secured US$12.9 million in pre-Series A funding. US$6.4 million was invested by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund, Greater Impact Foundation, and Dutch Development Bank FMO. The remaining US$6.5 million was secured as debt participation from DEG, Rabobank, Ceniarth, Rippleworks, Mulago Foundation, Whole Planet Foundation, Netri Foundation, and Kiva.
“With this new investment, we will scale the AI capabilities within Farmerline’s Mergdata platform to help increase the income of farmers and agribusinesses; supporting them to access farm inputs; supplying them with assets such as tricycles, tractors, and threshers; and connecting them to global markets,” Mr. Attah said. The startup also plans to deepen its relations with Ivorian partners.
Melchior Koba
Mohamed Ali launched a food tech to reduce the prevalence of obesity and promote healthy food and dietary habits. Initially, his startup was operating in Egypt but with the funds he raised recently, the entrepreneur intends to expand operations into the MENA region.
Mohamed Ali (photo) is an Egyptian entrepreneur and founder of 3attar.com, a foodtech promoting healthy shopping. Founded in 2018, the startup offers food and dietary items, delivery services, and dietary counseling via its website, and mobile apps.
It was launched to improve the population’s health and reduce obesity prevalence, which has been rising in Egypt since 2017. Its ambition is to become the choice destination for athletes, fitness professionals, sick people, and even individuals who need quality and healthy food items adapted to their individual needs and lifestyle.
“We aim to become the dominant one-stop-shop for the whole health community in Egypt and expand into Mena regions; including chronic diseases and obesity by providing a holistic healthy lifestyle app,” the founder explains.
The latter spent his whole professional career in the e-commerce industry. In 2010, some months after securing a BSc in Accounting, Mohamed Ali joined Edfa3ly, a platform that allows users to buy goods from the U.S. and get them delivered to Egypt. He launched 3attar.com after leaving Edfa3ly.
In January 2022, he secured seed investment from AUC Angels, UI Investment & individual Angel Investors to expand the startup’s client base and upgrade its infrastructure for “higher-order volume and revenues.”
Melchior Koba
In just seven years, Karim Beguir has transformed InstaDeep into an international AI reference. With the support of renowned investors and partners, he wants to enter new markets and sectors.
Karim Beguir (photo) is a Tunisian entrepreneur and Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning. With his high school friend Zohra Slim, he founded InstaDeep, an artificial intelligence startup that develops smart solutions to facilitate decision-making.
Within seven years, the startup founded in 2014 has gone intercontinental with offices in Paris, Tunis, Lagos, Dubai, London, Cape Town, and the USA recently. To upgrade its infrastructure and attract new talents, it raised US$100 million in a Series B round led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and CBIB. Participating investors included Google, Deutsche Bahn, and BioNTech.
For Karim Beguir, InstaDeep aimed to show that Tunisians can create cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies and conquer the African AI market. The co-founder is a science graduate. In 2003, he graduated from the French academic institution École Polytechnique with an Engineering diploma in applied mathematics and economy. In 2003, he graduated from New York University with an MSc in Applied Mathematics and Finance. With InstaDepp, he bagged several recognitions, was invited to international AI conferences, and collaborated with well-known firms. In 2017, InstaDeep was named one of the 20 Intriguing Global Startups to Watch by PCMag. The same year, it signed a partnership with Intel’s AI Builders and became an NVIDIA inception member.
About two years later, the startup published a joint research paper with Google’s DeppMind. In 2020, Karim Beguir announced a strategic collaboration with biotechnology company BioNTech and the creation of an AI innovation lab for the development of Novel Immunotherapies.
For two years, 2020 and 2021, InstaDeep was in CBInsights’ AI100 ranking, which showcases the world's most innovative AI companies. Last year, it became an NVIDIA Elite Service Delivery Partner.
Melchior Koba
With over ten years of professional experience in the accounting sector, Babatunde Akin-Moses knows quite well the challenges faced by SMEs in their search for bank loans. Sycamore was launched to address some of those challenges.
Babatunde Akin-Moses (photo) is a Nigerian entrepreneur and co-founder of risk assessment startup Sycamore.ng.
Co-founded in 2019 with Onyinye Okonji and Mayowa Adeosin, the startup allows access to quick and collateral-free personal loans via its web and mobile platform available on PlayStore and AppStore. Through the web and mobile app, users can also lend to friends and families and automatically collect their dues at specified amortization dates.
Sycamore was launched to allow SMEs access to credit since they are usually unable to borrow from banks due to stringent conditions.
“...If you are in other countries, once you have a job, you can easily get a mortgage. But here in Nigeria, even if you are working, you need to be working for an upstream oil and gas firm or basically earning a lot of money before you can access a significant credit facility without having to present a landed property as collateral. You can see how that’s a major problem in a country where there are 100 million poor people,” explains co-founder and CEO Babatunde Akin-Moses.
As the CEO of Sycamore.ng, Babatunde Akin-Moses completed a seed-funding round whose amount was not disclosed. With the proceeds, the startup will build awareness in the Nigerian market where it is the only startup in the peer-to-peer lending segment. It will also invest in financial education, boost its human resources and expand to other African countries.
The co-founder holds an MBA from the Lagos Business School. His professional career started in 2010 with a business analyst position at Shell Nigeria. One year later, he joined KPMG as a tax analyst. In 2014, he was hired by PwC as a tax consultant and then as a Tax academy deputy. After five years with PwC, he was recruited by Pezesha as a finance and strategy manager. He left four months later to co-found Sycamore. He is also a member of the board of Profiliant Development Resources, a B2B sales, and marketing consultancy firm.
Melchior Koba
Over the past ten years, François de Wet has sharpened his expertise through various professional experiences. With his online Wamly, he extended his reach to a wider range of business leaders who are intent on surrounding themselves with qualified staff.
François de Wet (photo) is a South African registered Industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologist. In 2018, he founded Wamly, the startup which developed an eponymous one-way interview software to ease recruitment processes.
With Wamly, firms can organize many interviews at the same time without mobilizing personnel. All they have to do is to create interview questions and send them to multiple applicants who will record a video of themselves answering the interview questions. That video is then sent to the interview panel, which will review it whenever they want.
According to François de Wet, “companies run because of people. People are the most valuable piece of the puzzle in any business.” So, “it should make sense that we place a high value on the process that we are using to find and retain these people,” he adds.
Wamly is the result of years of experience accumulated in human resources consulting by its founder. As a trained industrial and organizational psychologist, he knows quite well how to make firms more efficient.
In 2012, he graduated from North-West University, Potchefstroom, with a Bachelor of Commerce in Industrial and organizational psychology. Months before his graduation, he “completed vacation work as a vocational consultant at EXXARO HQ, a human resources consultancy firm in Pretoria.
He later joined another human resource consultancy firm, Top Talent Solutions, where he spent over five years in various positions.
In 2018, he left Top Talent Solutions to create the talent intelligence platformTalent Insights and Wamly. The one-way interview platform is now used by large firms to save time.
The next stage for Wamly is to enter additional African markets and ultimately export the solution out of continental borders. For that purpose, in January 2022, the startup raised a series B financing of an undisclosed amount from Knife Capital.
Melchior Koba
SeamlesHR is positively impacting Nigerian firms’ performance since its creation in 2018. It boosts their efficiency by streamlining their human resources management process.
Emmanuel Okeleji (photo) is a Nigerian investment banker, medical doctor, and serial entrepreneur. Through SeamlessHR, the startup he co-founded in 2018 with Deji Lana, he helps firms streamline their human resources and payroll management processes.
With its eponymous cloud platform, SeamlessHR allows firms to track applications, onboard employees, track performances and attendance, manage payroll, leave and skill development. In short, the cloud platform saves firms precious time. For instance, the firms can administer recruitment tests and carry out interviews remotely. So, there is no need for applicants and recruiters to be physically present for tests.
The core modules of the platform include Tracking System (ATS), Employee Onboarding, Payroll, Leave Management, Performance Management, Talent Management, Succession & Workforce Planning, Time & Attendance Management, and Learning & Development.
As a trained medical doctor, Mr. Emmanuel graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, Osun State, Nigeria, in 2011. Three years into his medical studies, in 2007, he co-funded Waressence, a software development firm. Six years later, in 2013, he also co-founded Insidify.com, a Nigeran job aggregator.
Apart from his entrepreneurship career, Emmanuel Okeleji also has an extensive professional career. In 2011, he worked in the Investment Banking Division and Securities Division of UK investment banker Goldman Sachs. The following year, he joined the staff of St.Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, as a resident physician.
With his entrepreneurship experience, Emmanuel Okeleji has gained credibility nationwide. Last year, he was invited to the fifth annual lecture of the Kings University, Osun State, to speak on entrepreneurship, innovation, and employment.
His current plan is to continue to improve human resources management and SeamlessHR clients’ experience by adding new features to the cloud platform. For that purpose, in January 2022, the startup raised US$10 million in a Series A round led by TLcom Capital. Participating firms were Capria Ventures, Lateral Frontier Ventures, Enza Capital, and Ingressive Capital.
Melchior Koba
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With an extensive professional career in several countries, he is certain that financial literacy is key to helping populations avoid debts. With Alvin Technologies, he is planning to do just that in Africa.
Winston Reid (photo) is a Kenyan entrepreneur who founded fintech startup Alvin Technologies in 2021. With its smart money management app, his startup helps users manage their income and savings. It helps them develop personalized budgeting plans, eliminate unnecessary expenditures, and monitor all the money outflows to avoid going into debt.
Through Alvin Technologies, he also provides banks and fintechs with “powerful API features to help them drive better customer engagement and money habits via their own apps.”
The Diplomacy and Global Politics graduate (B.A. from the University of Miami in 2014) founded Alvin Technologies to improve financial literacy in Africa and give Africans tools to “balance their daily spending with their savings goals.”
In January 2022, Alvin secured a US$740,000 pre-seed fund in a round led by Nigerian firm Ingressive Capital. With the secured funds, Winston Reid plans to hire more staff and boost Alvin Technologies’ positioning in Nigeria, in the second half of 2022.
“We’re excited to have such mission-aligned partners and strategic angels onboard the Alvin journey to help us build an even more intuitive and powerful personal finance app for all of Africa faster and more efficiently. This capital will enable us to hire key personnel quickly and scale faster as we transition from the private beta stage of the Alvin App v1: Labrador to the first public version of Alvin later in the quarter,” Winston said.
The techpreneur has over ten years of professional experience, in the finance sector mostly. In 2011, he joined Vector Marketing as a field sales advisor. Months later, he entered the communication industry as an English communication consultant for Shan Herald News Agency before notable positions in the agritech and edtech sectors in the U.S., Senegal, Nigeria, Thailand, and Kenya.
Melchior Koba
With his over seven years of entrepreneurship experience, Aminu Ibrahim Bakori successfully entered the fintech segment by offering solutions to a crucial problem faced by businesses: card issuance. His startup developed an API that allows businesses and individuals to issue payment cards within days instead of the usual weeks or months waiting times that are the standards with banks.
In January 2021, Aminu Ibrahim Bakori (photo, right) and Kabir Shittu (photo, left) founded fintech startup Sudo Africa in Nigeria. Barely 18 months after its launch, in March 2022, the startup came under the spotlight by raising US$3.7 million in pre-seed funding. During the funding round, participating investors included notable names like Global Founders Capital Picus Capital, LoftyInc Capital, Rallycap Ventures, Kepple Africa, Berrywood Capital, ZedCrest, and Suya Ventures.
With the proceeds of that round, Sudo Africa plans to consolidate and develop its operations. The startup offers an API enabling the quick issuance of virtual and physical payment cards in Nigeria. It was founded to reduce the always long-waiting of firms and businesses that want to issue payment cards for their staff or clients.
“At some point, we wanted to issue cards and worked with one of the local banks in Nigeria. (...) They got to print up to 1,000 cards, but it took a lot of time and none of them functioned because the bank wasn’t able to provide any APIs for us to either manage the cards or even control the usage of those cards. That was the first time we came around, thinking about how to issue cards,” explains Sudo Africa’s co-founder and CEO Aminu Bakori.
The young entrepreneur holds a BSc in Statistics from Ahmadu Bello University (2015). He presents himself as “a passionate computer science student, programmer, and developer” who loves “ developing web applications and windows html5 apps, (...) Microsoft technologies and teaching others how to use technology for good use.”
In 2013, while still at university, he founded Friendstie, a social network for tech enthusiasts. Some four years later, he founded Payant.ng, a startup offering SMBs and freelancers the means to issue invoices, send payment reminders, and collect payment directly into their bank accounts wherever they are.
Melchior Koba
In his about one decade of entrepreneurship experience, Tesh Mbaabu has implemented several projects in Kenya. With his numerous national and international recognitions, he has won the trust of investors ready to support the East and West African expansion of his B2B platform.
Tesh Mbaabu (photo) is a Kenyan entrepreneur and co-founder of MarketForce, a B2B platform that facilitates the retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services in Africa. In 2020, the platform he co-founded with Mesongo Sebuti was improved with the integration of RejaReja, which allows users to make orders, pay, accept payments, and access online loans.
About two years later, in February 2022, MarketForce raised US$40 million to enter new East and West African markets in addition to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Its co-founder and CEO is a serial entrepreneur. He quicked off his professional career in 2011, four years before his BSc in computer science from the University of Nairobi (2015). That year, he became the creative director of Tesh Technologies Ltd, a graphic design and printing firm, while attending university. Two years later, he co-founded Mesozi Group, an integrated business and technology solutions provider. In 2016, Tesh Mbaabu co-founded Cloud9xp.com, an online recreation marketplace, and booking platform. About one year after the creation of MarketForce, he joined traveltech startup HotelOnlline as a board advisor.
His digital entrepreneurship experience also earned him prestigious recognitions. In 2018, he was a mentor at iHub Nairobi's Traction Camp, a “regional acceleration program aimed at nurturing startups in East Africa.” Three years later, he became an entrepreneurial growth mentor for accelerator JASIRI. Since April 2022, he has been teaching Entrepreneurship Without Borders (MS&E 272) at the University of Stanford, California. On April 21, he received the Fintech Investment Excellence Award during the Africa Fintech Summit in Washington DC.
Melchior Koba
In just two years, serial entrepreneur Jesse Ghansah transformed Float into a promising fintech startup now trusted by several investors.
In January 2022, Ghanaian fintech Float raised US$17 million, a comparatively high amount raised by an African startup for its expansion. During the funding round, the startup co-founded in 2020, by Jesse Ghansah (photo, right) and Barima Effah (photo, left) seduced notable investors like Tiger Global, JAM Fund, Cauris, Kinfolk, Soma Capital, Ingressive Capital, and Magic Fund. Several angel investors also contributed. With the proceed, the startup plans to enter the South African and Kenyan markets.
Through Float, Jesse Ghansah helps small and medium businesses manage and monitor their cashflows in real time, pay supplier debts, and access loans for critical business expenses.
“Businesses that serve other businesses have to wait typically for 30-90 days for their payments to come in. This is like a traditional payment cycle where you have to offer credit sales to your customers to stay competitive. that’s why you send an invoice, and the customer will pay you back within that time frame,” he indicates.
According to Techcrunch -quoting a UN research report-, “85% of African SMBs have zero access to financing, and each day, African SMBs have billions locked up in receivables due to long payment cycles.” They, therefore, face cash flow problems that prevent them from paying for important expenses and delivering orders on time.
Float is created to address such problems, Ghansah explains. The loans granted through Float help address the liquidity problems that could be caused by late client payments. Firms also have no worries about paying salaries when their cash flow is tight. They can seamlessly repay the received loans when all the clients pay their invoices.
Jesse Ghansah graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in 2014, with a BSc in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Molecular Medicine. The same year, he quicked off his entrepreneurial career by co-founding the e-commerce platform Swipe Commerce and Zita Cakery. In 2015, he founded OMG Digital, the media company that owns OMGVoice and Bitnode. He also created Hivegig, the first Ghanaian online freelance marketplace that connects individuals and companies with freelance workers.
To ensure the success of Float, from 2019 to 2020, he upgraded his machine learning and artificial intelligence skill at the Bloom Institute of Technology, also known as BloomTech.
Melchior Koba