Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), Nigeria’s leading social innovation centre in partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs, has announced the names of the 14 selected startups set to participate in PitchDrive, a three week five-city European tech hub tour across London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zurich and Paris with the aim to raise €20M in funding from investors.
This partnership will bring together 14 elite African tech companies to pitch to investors, explore international opportunities and offerings, learn about cutting edge frontier technology markets and build a network amongst technology leaders from both the African and European continent, bridging the divide across the tech ecosytems.
Applications for the programme were received from 118 African startup founders who were looking to raise Series A funding.
The selected startups include:
- Kudobuzz – Ghana
Kudobuzz is a saas tool that helps SMBs increase their sales with user generated content and smart SEO.
- Ongair – Kenya
Ongair is an AI powered customer relationship management system for customer service and marketing on social messaging apps.
- Gebeya – Kenya/Ethiopia
Gebeya is building a-self-sustained ecosystem that trains, hires and incubates the best of African talent
- Piggybank – Nigeria
Piggybank.ng is an automated savings platform for African millennials, that helps them save fixed amounts of money periodically till they reach a set savings target.
- Gloo – Nigeria
Gloo.ng is Africa’s biggest online supermarket saving busy homemakers the hassles of grocery shopping in African cities.
- Prepclass – Nigeria
Prepclass is a marketplace that connects learners who need help with vetted and trusted independent tutors looking to offer their services
- Tradedepot – Nigeria
Tradedepot helps businesses reach their distributors, wholesalers and retailers online on one platform
- Lifebank – Nigeria
LifeBank helps hospitals discover essential medical products and delivers to the hospital in the right condition.
- Fashpa – Nigeria
Fashpa is building the future of fashion retail in Africa with an online platform that uses on demand manufacturing to deliver fast fashion.
- Firefly media – Senegal
Firefly uses digital technologies to empower, connect and build urban transportation in Africa.
- GoMetro – South Africa
GoMetro is a Flexible Mobility Platform that produces actionable business intelligence on the transport network of a city.
- ClinicMaster – Uganda
ClinicMaster is an integrated healthcare information management and medical billing software that automates patients’ transactions in the clinic or hospital on a visit basis and daily procedures.
- BitFinance – Zimbabwe
BitFinance is a bitcoin exchange that is making it super easy to buy, sell and use cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in Africa.
- Real food – Zimbabwe
Real Food provides convenient, innovative, healthy eating solutions of locally sourced produce through the home delivery of Recipe Boxes.
Starting in London on 14th of August 2017, the selected startups will visit Google’s Campus London, TQ Amsterdam, Factory Berlin and Impact Hub in Zurich, concluding at NUMA Paris. Upon completion of the tour, they would have pitched to over 300 investors, with the specific goal of raising over €20M.
This is the first tour of its kind connecting African tech companies with European capital, and the PitchDrive team is aiming to open up the sector to investors who desire to include emerging markets in their portfolios.
According to ‘Bosun Tijani, Founder and CEO of CcHub, “The idea of PitchDrive is a phenomenal and an incredible opportunity for not only the selected 14 startups, but also the investors. The turnout of applications for PitchDrive lean to the ‘start small dream big’ saying and through this platform, we hope to help secure a number of breakthrough capital deals for the selected 14 startups. And, like the Garage story of Google, we hope that one or two or possibly all of these startups will have a similar story. I can say that they are in for a tough but rewarding journey with us.”
“We are glad for the support of Google for Entrepreneurs on the PitchDrive tour and look forward to the journey ahead.”
PitchDrive will provide all travel, accommodation and visa support, as well mentorship and support from notable tech founders well versed in fund raising, including David Grunwald of Google for Entrepreneurs, Iroko Founder and CEO Jason Njoku, Saidah Nash Carter of Reuters and Stephen Newton of Illuminate Africa.