Out of 950 applicants, World Bank’s XL Africa program has selected 20 startups from across Africa for its four month accelerator program set to be implemented by IMC Worldwide, Koltai & Co. and VC4Africa.
The 20 startups will pitch to investors in Cape Town November 15-16 at the African Angel Investor Summit for an opportunity to raise between $250k – $1.5m in series A capital to commercialize their digital products in fin-tech, transportation, healthcare, education, human resources, and B2B among other fields.
The startups include South Africa’s Aerobotics, a data analytics company, making use of aerial imagery and machine learning algorithms to solve specific problems across a number of industries. UK and Nigeria-based Asoko Insight which provides data on thousands of unlisted African companies supporting lead generation, investor deal flow and commercial due diligence and Senegal’s CoinAfrique, a mobile peer to peer marketplace for French speaking Africa.
Tanzania’s Jamii or EdgePoint Digital, a fintech company using technology to cut down administration cost to enable insurers to offer micro insurance, Kenya’s Lynk which hosts profiles of thousands of heavily vetted professionals in over 140 categories in the informal sectors. Customers request jobs through web or app, & workers bid for the jobs.
Nigeria’s Paycentre, a fintech firm setting converting existing retail businesses like pharmacies and grocery stores into access points and MAX, a hyper-local transportation and delivery in Africa, using machine-learning to authorize and organize motorcycle taxis into an on-demand service. Venue booking platform OgaVenue Kenya’s Ongair, Sendy, Sokowatch and Pesabazaar were also among the selected.
Others who made the cut are Prepclass, an e-learning platform to ensure that relevant local content such as past questions, past tests, class notes and videos are available to users on demand via their digital devices, Printivo, an efficient online printing press, Rensource, a solar solutions and financing to consumers and SMEs in urban/peri-urban Nigeria while bridging the electricity demand-grid supply gap.
Nigeria’s Tizeti which provides unlimited internet to low and underserved areas using wifi and solar powered base stations, Tanzania’s Rasello, an enterprise software company aimed at empowering organizations with technology that automates communication and catalyze decision making via business intelligence solutions, South Africa’s Snapplify a media and technology company specializing in the retail and distribution of digital content to educational institutions and individual users.
TalentBase , a HR software for SMEs in Nigeria working with SMEs who are looking to adding more structure into their organization, but in the past lacked affordable options and South Africa’s Timbuktu Travel an interactive platform that allows travellers to design and customise their own trip to Africa from a selection of hundreds of handpicked lodges and curated itineraries.
Source:VC4A & World Bank.
