Some 40 finalists from technology startups across Africa have been selected to showcase their work at the first ever DEMO Africa conference.
This year’s DEMO conference, a platform for emerging technology trends and startups to show their products and services to potential investors, is scheduled to take place in Nairobi, Kenya on October 24th to the 26th.
Officials from DEMO Africa, said finalists had to go through rigorous vetting processes with a final adjudication by a pan-African panel of judges including entrepreneurs, venture capital investors, and academics.
“This has been a very enriching exercise seeing the quality of innovation coming out of Africa,” said Harry Hare, executive producer, DEMO Africa.
“It’s been a great pleasure working with this group of entrepreneurs. We congratulate the ones that have made it through to the final round and trust they will put their best foot forward in Nairobi,” said Ben White, founder, VC4Africa.
A total of 500 applications were processed, which were then shortlisted to 150 two weeks ago and then down to the final 40 with applicants from South Africa and Kenya making up the big chunk of the final 40, and Ghana and Nigeria coming in a close second.
Other countries represented included Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
According to DEMO Africa the 40 finalists will cover five categories, namely social media, cloud services, mobile, consumer and enterprise technologies.
“Many entrepreneurs did not make the final cut despite having excellent ventures. We wish we could launch all of them at DEMO Africa, but that’s practically not possible,” said Hare.
“We will, however, engage with all of them and see how to assist them through the partnerships we have created to move their businesses to the next level,” he added.
Dele Akinsade, developer and platform leader, Microsoft West, East, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, also added that “DEMO Africa will see 40 talented entrepreneurs get the level of global exposure their ideas deserve – and we can’t wait to see the results.”
DEMO Africa organisers hope the event can attract venture capitalists, investors, investment fund managers’, tech buyers, entrepreneurs and innovation supporters.
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