Three African startups – Egypt’s DXwand, Kenya’s MarketForce, and Nigeria’s PricePally – have been selected among the ten companies selected to receive approximately US$150,000 in seed funding as part of SOSV’s cross-border programme.
Three of the ten startups selected for this cohort are from Africa, and they are tackling global concerns ranging from food security to lending solutions for the unbanked. DXwand from Egypt is a conversational AI tool that automates and extracts insights from conversations in Arabic dialects and English; MarketForce from Kenya is a mobile-first SME digitisation platform; and PricePally from Nigeria is a group-buying platform for agricultural products.
Each startup receives a six-month program with a specialized salesforce, tech support for growth, and a close-knit cross-border fraternity in addition to the US$150,000 seed funding.
“Africa shares a lot of similarities with Asia’s mobile-first markets such as India, Southeast Asia and China, where I have been investing for two decades. The availability of low-cost smartphones, easy access to the internet, and ubiquitous digital payment make these ecosystems fertile grounds for breakthrough internet companies. We’re excited to bring our cross-border network from Asia to Africa and to help founders here succeed, no matter where they are in the world,” said William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV.
SOSV invests in 150 startups each year through category-leading startup development programs to help them develop and scale bold ideas for positive change.
SOSV has sponsored eight African startups so far and expects to invest in ten more on the continent while also establishing an ecosystem of corporate partners, with US$1.1 billion in AUM as of October 2021.