Eight high-potential female founders captivated over 300 investors, ecosystem leaders, and delegates during Deal Morning at the 11th annual Africa Early Stage Investor Summit (AESIS2024). These bold founders, representing the VC4A Venture Showcase – She Wins Africa edition, pitched their inspiring solutions that address critical challenges in agriculture, fintech, e-commerce, and health in Africa. Their participation was the culmination of VC4A’s award-winning Technical Residency, an investment-readiness intervention aimed at preparing early stage founders for scale and funding.
AESIS, cohosted by VC4A and ABAN, showcased the growing collaboration among investors, startups, and support organizations across Africa.
In the opening remarks, VC4A CEO – Vincent Hoogduijn set the tone for the two-day summit. “Why does VC4A organize AESIS every year? The answer is simple – we are here to unite the African early stage investment ecosystem”.
Through panels, pitches, networking sessions, and investor experiences, the summit reinforced the importance of ecosystem-wide cooperation.
VC4A Technical Residency
The She Wins Africa Program, implemented by VC4A in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs with the tools, networks, and exposure needed to thrive. Seventeen ‘She Winners’ from a pool of 100 ventures, were handpicked from the Grow and Scale tracks for the VC4A Technical Residency. The selected founders participated in a week-long on-site residency in Cape Town, receiving tailored training, expert mentorship and in-person connections throughout the week. Eight founders from the Scale track pitched confidently to the AESIS2024 audience.
Anne Kabugi, Regional Gender Lead at IFC opened the showcase pitches with a thought-provoking question:
“What if I told you that Africa’s food crisis is going to be solved by women?”
Anne Kabugi, Regional Gender Lead at IFC at the AESIS2024 Deal Morning, Cape Town, November 29th, 2024
At the Deal Morning, the following eight companies took to the stage:
Cladfy Inc. is a Kenyan fintech revolutionizing last-mile lending for the informal sector by building robust lending infrastructure for microlenders and micro, small enterprises (MSEs).
GoBEBA is Africa’s leading e-commerce utility platform, providing safe, reliable access to essential utilities like cooking energy and water.
Paycard SA is a mobile money app that enables customers to make merchant payments, services payments, bill payments, transfers and cash in and cash out.
Kasuwa platform aims to digitize the supply chain and connect various stakeholders in the agricultural trade, by bringing together food processors, suppliers or aggregators, logistics companies, and financial institutions on a single platform, creating a seamless and efficient ecosystem for agricultural commodity trade.
Founded in 2019, eShandi (formerly PremierCredit) is on a mission to revolutionize financial services across Africa. They empower individuals and businesses with innovative, accessible, and inclusive solutions tailored to their unique needs.
The problem Farmio solves is that the African continent only produces 40% of the expected demand due to poor agricultural practices, lack of integration of agricultural technologies, supply chain inefficiencies and adverse weather conditions.
Digital platform that allows SMEs to access immediate cash they need by selling off their invoices, because SMEs don’t have easy access to short-term credit in Cameroon.
Advantage Health Africa is a certified health-tech solutions company integrated across various verticals of the pharma industry to provide access to affordable and genuine medicines through aggregation in a platform business model.
Pitching in progress at the VC4A Venture Showcase – She Wins Africa edition, AESIS2024 Deal Morning, Cape Town, November 29th, 2024
Each of the `She Winners’ pitched alongside 15 highly promising portfolio companies from 5 other organizations – DEG Impulse: develoPPP Ventures, Digital Africa: Fuzé, Ennovate Ventures: TheNextFund, Open Startup and the GIZ: SAIS program. The high caliber of startups and the strategic insights shared by the judging panel created a launchpad moment for the future of the African startup ecosystem, showcasing innovative and impactful solutions to real problems.
A statement that perfectly sums up the experience of co-hosting this edition: “AESIS2024 once again pointed out that collaboration is a must,” said Vincent Hoogduijn. “It’s been a tough year and we all need to work together to overcome the challenges ahead. Persistence, resilience and adaptability will be key ingredients to see the ecosystem thrive – go fast alone, go far together”
After a year of planning, VC4A is grateful for the opportunity to serve the ecosystem as a platform to connect, inspire, and empower. Looking ahead, the collective efforts of investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers will be essential to unlocking Africa’s full potential and driving its economic growth. VC4A’s commitment is to continue to unite Africa’s startup ecosystems as we look forward to reconnecting with old and new friends at AESIS2025 next year.
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About AESIS
The Africa Early Stage Investor Summit (AESIS) is a collaborative venture between VC4A and ABAN, dedicated to advancing innovation and growth in Africa’s investment ecosystem. Celebrating its 11th anniversary, AESIS2024 brought together investors, industry leaders, and influencers with the aim of accelerating early-stage investing across Africa. Visit africainvestorsummit.com for more information.
About VC4A
VC4A is an ecosystem builder that leverages its infrastructure, network, and expertise for the programs that contribute to the startup movement in emerging markets. Since 2007, the organization has designed, structured, and implemented successful entrepreneurship programs in exciting regions. VC4A runs an online platform featuring a database of startups in Africa and Latin America, connecting entrepreneurs to resources, networks, and funding. Visit the global website at vc4a.com for more information.