DEMO Africa 2017 Winners Unveiled in South Africa

DEMO Africa has unveiled the five top companies from its 2017 startup competition held on November 23rd and 24th in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Speaking to TechMoran, Harry Hare, DEMO Africa Director said the 5 Lions include Morocco’s SOS Sante, Nigeria’s Versecom, South Africa’s Rooster and Kenya’s M-Post and Zoa.

Harry added that this year DEMO Africa had a Social Impact Lion supported by the Africa Technology Foundation. The Social Impact Lion was Powerstove.

Nigeria’s Versecom is a WiFi technology company with a mission to make internet a social amenity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The firm says its decision to choose WiFi as our distribution channel is due to its smaller form factor and lower utility requirement thus reducing the cost of internet infrastructure; our first solution approach. 

It’s second solution approach is to develop a software with which its provisioned network can be accessed for free and monetize using adverts. Versecom is building the largest single WiFi mesh [36km by 100m] in the world backhauled using fibre optic cables to improve connectivity and lay the foundation for IoT.

Morocco’s SOS Sante is an extremely affordable, freely implementable device on cars no matter their age or model, that detects accidents, and sends passengers Location, Medical Record, Blood Type and Accident Assessment Reports directly to the closest emergency center and to Insurance Companies, using the most basic GSM technology for an ensured reach even in the less signal covered areas.

South Africa’s Rooster is reimagining morning alarms by waking users up with surprises from friends and fresh content channels including music, comedy, religion, meditation, news, inspiration and more.

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The Rooster app is an alarm app that wakes the user up in 2 ways: 1) Voice notes from friends and family that surprises the user upon alarm time arrival 2) Channel roosters that includes a wide range of content The explore function allows users to listen to content at any time throughout the day.

Kenya’s ZOA tech limited is a fintech startup passionate about financial services delivery. We are focused on offering affordable financial services to low income earners.

ZOAME is a loan management platform that connects investors directly with borrowers and gives the lender a return on his investment. ZOAME allows consumers to request loans online and get fast responses and loan approval. The platform also makes it easy to track loan repayments.

ZOAMICRO is a savings and loans management platform that manages members, savings, loans and offers back office operations to Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) while M-Post by Taz technologies is an innovative product that allows you to enjoy Postal Services at home, in the office, or on the go at your convenience through your mobile phone – Posta Mkononi.

Powerstove aims to drive change and bring about measurable results by leveraging three core competencies: world-class analytics, boots-on-the-ground execution and cutting-edge technology solutions. 

PowerStove offers alternative to households clean cook stoves throughout Sub-Saharan Africa by using its innovative clean cook technology to reduce the amount of charcoal required by families and cutting toxic pollutants by more than 95 percent —nearly 10 times more efficient than other available improved clean cook stoves. Our rugged PowerStove uses excess energy produced during the cooking process to power a USB charger for cell phones, fixed LED lights, and other small electrical devices.

The five beat 30 other companies that launched their products in Johannesburg, South Africa included;

DEMO Africa has launched 180 startups in the last 5 years raising over US$54m in investments and billings. Over 50 DEMO alumni launch companies have been acquired by tech giants including Adobe, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Symantec, Viacom and Yahoo!