SA Tech Startups not great enough for Jack Ma's Top Ten African startups
South African tech startups do not feature on the final top 10 startups sought after by Jack Ma and his foundation. The finalists were chosen from nearly 10,000 applicants from 50 African countries.The Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative is Jack Ma’s flagship entrepreneur program in Africa led by the Jack Ma Foundation. This week the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative released details of the top 10 which included startups from countries across the continent. Tech startups from Nigeria dominate the chosen top ten followed by startups from Rwanda and Egypt. The following are the final top ten startups that includes e-commerce, agritech, fintech and health tech startups.
Mumm,
Thrive Agric
Life Bank
J-Palm
UZURI K&Y
Water Access Rwanda
WeMUNIZE
DrugStoc
Nawah-Scientific
Afrikrea.com
Mumm is a virtual cafeteria for businesses, harnessing the power of shared economy through technology, cloud kitchens and an online marketplace for home-based entrepreneurial cooks. Mumm is led by Waleed Abd El Rahman, who is a seasoned entrepreneur with 12+ years in food tech. He is also the former founding managing director of MIT Technology Review-Middle East and a member of the Advisory Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community.
Thrive Agric is an agricultural technology-enabled company that works with smallholder farmers to enable them with greater access to finance, as well as improve their income and harvest distribution. Today, Thrive Agric works with 22,000 farmers in Nigeria, but the company is aiming to build the largest network of farmers in Africa. They team behind the company is on a mission to “build an Africa that feeds the world and Itself.” Thrive is led by Ayodeji Arikawe who is an accomplished software engineer and serves as both co-founder and CTO for Thrive Agric.
LifeBank is a medical distribution company that uses data and technology to help health workers discover critical medical products. The company has saved over 5,300 lives in Nigeria. Founder Temie Giwa-Tubosun has over 10 years of health-management experience with Department for International Development, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and Lagos State. In 2014, BBC listed her as one of the 100 women changing the world. She was also recognized by Quartz and the World Economic Forum.
J-Palm Liberia (JPL) was founded with the goal of making premium consumer goods while creating income-earning and employment opportunities through sustainable palm-oil production. When JPL was first founded, palm oil kernels had been going to waste in Liberia, but founder and CEO Mahmud Johnson found a way to innovate productive uses for this overlooked natural resource. Today, JPL has created a range of beauty and clean-energy products, built a robust network of partnerships across the country, and helped to create jobs for hundreds of Liberians. Mahmud holds a degree in economics from Dartmouth College and is a 2017 recipient of the Order of the Star of Africa conferred by the President of Liberia.
UZURI K&Y is an African-inspired eco-friendly shoe brand established in Rwanda and co-founded by Kevine Kagirimpundu. She is passionate about ending global waste while also leveraging her creativity to create employment opportunities for her community. UZURI has made a direct impact on more than 750 people through employment and skills training. In addition to obtaining her degree in creative design, she has participated in numerous entrepreneurship programs to enhance her skills in business development. In 2017, she was recognized as the winner of the Made in Rwanda Enterprise of the Year.
Water Access Rwanda pioneered INUMATM, a Safe Water Microgrid that reclaims broken boreholes and transforms them into state-of-the-art solar-powered water kiosks and pipelines. The water is sold for $1/1000 litre and creates off-farm jobs for youth. Currently, Water Access Rwanda employs 68 people, and allows 47,612 customers to access water daily across 86 stations. Christelle Kwizera who is the founder is a mechanical engineer and was named INCO’s woman entrepreneur of the year in 2019, among other high-profile awards.
WeMUNIZE by Black Swan Tech Ltd is helping to solve Nigeria’s public-health challenges by deploying an automated scheduling, GPS-enabled software-as-a-service that uses a combination of digital record keeping and community engagement to increase birth registration and early childhood immunizations. Black Swan is working with USAID Nigeria to expand WeMUNIZE coverage in northern Nigeria. The company was founded by Dr. Tosan J. Mogbeyiteren who is a public-health specialist with more than 13 years of experience in deploying technology to solve development challenges in Nigeria.
DrugStoc is a cloud-based pharmaceutical IT and logistics platform focused on eliminating counterfeit drugs, expanding access to pharmaceutical products and improving transparency in pricing for healthcare providers and the product supply chain. The company is led by Chibuzo Opara, who is a health economist and medical doctor with over 12 years of experience in the health sector. He has worked with the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation.
Nawah-Scientific is the first private research center in the MENA region focused on natural and biomedical sciences that offers analytical and scientific services online and on-demand. Dr. Sakr has 13 years of pharmaceutical experience, has worked as an adjunct assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Zewail City of Science and Technology, and holds scientific and business awards for innovative product design.
Afrikrea.com is the leading “Made of Africa” fashion, art and handicraft online marketplace. The marketplace has processed more than $4 million in sales across 101 countries and supports merchants from all over the world. After growing up in Mali and working for companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Alstom, Moulaye now dedicates his time to building the global infrastructure for African culture.
The initiave only picked 2 SA companies for their Top 20 of the 50 chosen startups. Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative had an objective to identify top entrepreneurs from across the continent, not only to reward them but to inspire a whole new generation of potential game changers for Africa. The initiative will host the “Africa’s Business Heroes” finale event in Ghana, Accra on the 29th November where winners will receive a share of the $1 million USD grant prize pool.