Cape Town, 23 October 2023
Startupbootcamp AfriTech is thrilled to announce the selection of the Top 10 finalists for its highly anticipated ASIP Accelerator Program. This comes after a 3-day Virtual Final Selection Day event that was attended by nearly 40 mentors, investors, partners and industry experts. This process helped identify startups suitable for the program. The chosen finalists come from diverse backgrounds and offer a range of groundbreaking solutions that are poised to disrupt various sectors.
The final 10 startups will now participate in an intense three-month acceleration journey, during which they will receive invaluable mentorship, resources, and access to a network of industry experts and investors. The ASIP Accelerator Program powered by SBC AfriTech is dedicated to providing the guidance and support necessary for these promising startups to scale their businesses and achieve long-term success. SBC AfriTech is committed to growing the number of female founders in the ecosystem, and has co-authored the African Gender Diversity Pledge. We are proud to share that 60% of the startups in Cohort 4 have at least 1 female co-founder.
“The Startupbootcamp Afritech ASIP Accelerator Cohort 4 selection period definitely had a lot of surprises and many firsts,” says Program Director Henry Ojuor. “For example, AI emerged as one of the top sectors in our application pool. Also, 26% of all the startups that applied are in the growth stage. Major positive signals for the African Tech ecosystem. That didn’t make our job of selecting the final Top 10 easier however, but we delivered nonetheless. And I’m optimistic that we’ve assembled and are ready to accelerate Africa’s future success stories.”
Without further ado, here are the 10 finalists for the ASIP Accelerator Program:
Our innovative AI driven model disrupts access to loan, by helping healthcare providers targeting under-served populations get low-interest loans without a collateral. Our partnership with manufacturers decongest the supply chain helping healthcare providers get discounts on chronic pain medications through access. By doing so, 10mg is reducing medications cost by helping patients save up to 15%, while healthcare providers increase their profit margin by 3%.
We offering to physical merchant the opportunity to receive digital payment and secure their money by receiving money from all our mobile money partners, and 80% of people use mobile money but don’t use it to pay cause their is no infrastructure yet for this at the merchant businesses. In one word, we’re offering professional digital wallet.
A world where everyone has the opportunity to learn, grow and push humanity forwards. To achieve this, we must first ensure that everyone has access to fundamental resources – like electricity. Nigeria’s national electrification rate is 45%, the rural electrification rate is 36% and the urban electrification rate is 55%. The country has the largest access deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa and the second-largest in the world, after India. Nigerians spend an estimated $14bn per year on small-scale diesel generators to offset poor or non-existent grid supply and the lack of adequate power supply results in over $25Bn in annual losses to the economy (6% of GDP). We leverage a technology solution that combines decentralized solar panels and batteries with IoT hardware and A. I software, to enable energy utilities to set up profitable, renewable mesh grids in remote areas, at ½ of the cost of traditional off-grid solutions.
Over one billion children will be born over the next 3 decades in sub-Saharan Africa. Demand for education would continue to soar and so is the proliferation of bad schools, while the good ones would be unaffordable for the low and middleclass parents for their kids. We founded Edusko to bridge this gap. We offer a web-based, one-stop platform that matches kids with the right k-12 private schools and finance their education affordably. Our solution allows parents to compare good schools, make informed decisions, access tuition discount and low-interest tuition finance and enroll their wards with ease. The process is simple, completely happens online and takes an average of 15 minutes to complete. The loan is disbursed within 12 hours once the credit rating is completed within minutes.
We have established KORIPASS, an E-wallet linked to physical payment accessories like bracelets, stickers, or keychain. Enables quick and easy merchant payments using NFC and QR Code technology. No internet or smartphone required. KORIPASS is a highly innovative payment system patented by OAPI since 2020. Users without smartphones can visit a KORIPASS merchant, open an account, link their preferred accessory, and fund it with cash. Otherwise, do it with our app…To pay, simply tap the payment accessory (keychain, stickers, or bracelet) on the merchant terminal. It’s that easy! If the merchant doesn’t have an NFC-enabled terminal, they can install the Koripass Pro app for QR code payments.
Also, Merchants no longer need multiple accounts; one KORIPASS merchant account allows acceptance of all mobile money providers in Senegal. Our payment accessories also offer additional merchant services like customer loyalty programs, subscription management, and change dispensing.”
Messenger is a logistics platform that finances and aggregates end-to-end logistics and supply chain operations. We connect businesses to their customers through efficient logistics services. Our vision is to facilitate trade and commerce across the continent. We started as a traditional logistics business in 2018 and the challenges we encountered from high cost of operations to satisfy customer demands, capacity underutilization amongst others. One of the challenges in ensuring our vision is a stable supply of logistics services to the end customer which informed our current solution. We have launched a partner aggregation platform providing asset and operating financing introducing a hot demand service for fuel financing keeping operators in business and powering trade. Currently we play in a $60B market that’s growing annually as more Africans are involved in trade and commerce.
By renting out cold storage space per crate at a daily rate, at Munakyalo Agrofresh, we help to eliminate the impact of food spoilage and improve small-scale post-harvest infrastructure, saving
20,400 tons of food from spoilage.
Estimate and finish your home projects through Our Patent Pending Smart Quote and Algorithmic pricing engine with “Pay as You Go” Business Model. Problems: Value Propositions:
> Very low purchasing power.
> Digitalize home projects’ data points.
> No fintech accessibility for marginalized communities like handymen.
> Save [+30] hours and [+2K$] per project.
> Wasted Resources for every home improvement project.
Ostafandy system can adapt any new market with its scalable framework using the Smart Quote and Algorithmic Pricing Engine as:
>> Can test the service providers remotely and [80%] automated.
>> Get the suitable price and fully need-customized quotation with fitting all the dynamic markets parameters.
>> Our Innovated protocol to onboard high quality service providers REMOTELY – Pricing System that can adapt to any new market easily.
>> Using our entire system only a team of 5 can manage +1600 service providers all over Egypt.
We provide power ? whilst providing digital payments for more than 40 hospitals and 1.5M patients across Africa.
We Automate hospitals by implementing our SaaS and We sell Smartcards to patients with integrated wallets allowing them access healthcare services without queues and improve their overall experience by providing a mobile-App to Book appointments and make payments to hospitals or Doctors in our network.
LyfPlus is a Tanzanian telemedicine platform that integrates virtual physician consultation, medical testing and e-prescription, allowing patients to access essential medical services instantly and conveniently. The platform is a web and mobile application covering all aspects of the patient process; where patients find doctors based on specialty, distance and price range, book tests, call and video consultations.
The ASIP Accelerator Program is funded by key partners, notably the Senegalese government through DER/FJ and the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), through MASSIF, the financial inclusion fund FMO manages on behalf of the Dutch government, Telecel, AWS, Google for Startups, and Firstbase.
Participants will receive an intensive three-month coaching and support program to accelerate their growth and benefits worth $750,000 USD. Startups will also have access to the global Accelerator Squared platform which has a complete library of content, group workshops, 1:1 mentoring, collaborative sessions with Entrepreneurs in Residence, and invite-only discussion forums with founders and industry experts from around the globe.
The program will take place in Dakar, Senegal and startups will be hosted at the D-hub, an innovation campus commissioned by DER/FJ. This will give startups an opportunity to explore their solutions in the Francophone market while connecting with key players for proofs of concept and pilots. Many founders consider this to be the biggest benefit of the program, and more than 60% of the alumni are scaling today on the basis of the commercial contracts that came through SBC introductions.
All of this will culminate in a Demo Day that will take place on the 8th of February 2024. On this day, the startup founders will pitch their accelerated disruptive solutions to a broad audience of media, investors, corporate partners, and industry stakeholders. Startupbootcamp AfriTech also announced an exciting development which will certainly improve the environment of innovation at the Dakar campus. The Accelerator Program has launched constellation pilots, designed to empower later-stage startups and Senegalese companies as well.
“We are excited to announce the Sunu Gaal (New Market Readiness) Program dedicated to support 7 Senegalese startups with the help of the new Startup Success team who are charged with long term startup support,” says Ojuor. “We want to create a culture of innovation across our campus and with our assembly of 17 startups from 6 different countries, I couldn’t be more excited for the future of innovation in Dakar, Senegal and the continent at large.”
For more information about the ASIP Accelerator Program, please visit sbcafritech.com
For more information about Startupbootcamp AfriTech and the ASIP Program, please visit sbcafritech.com.
About Startupbootcamp AfriTech
Startupbootcamp AfriTech was launched in 2017 as the first multi-corporate-backed pan-African startup accelerator. We run world-class accelerator programs, working with some of the most disruptive startups on the continent. We provide access to our global network of corporate partners, investors, and mentors. The SBC AfriTech portfolio currently has 60 African startups spanning 13 countries and operating in sectors that include FinTech, InsureTech, Logistics, Mobility, AgriTech and Digital Health.
With our support, 95% of SBC AfriTech alumni are still operational 2+ years after the program, and they have an aggregate valuation of nearly $1 Billion and 22% have female cofounders. For more information visit: http://bit.ly/sbcafritech
About Der/FJ
Der/FJ is an institution under the authority of the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal and it was launched by President Macky Sall in 2018 in order to support entrepreneurs throughout Senegal. This support is given through both financial and non-financial services, with an emphasis on sectors that include technology and innovation, hence the creation of the D-hub incubator. For more information about DER/FJ visit https://der.sn/
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a close to 50-year proven track record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have a high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food & water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 9.3 billion spanning over 85 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector development banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl.