AfricArena Summit brought together 100 African start-ups
Africa
,
06 Dec 2024
Over 100 tech start-ups from 31 African countries, including TotalEnergies Startupper Challenge winners, attended the 2024 AfricArena Grand Summit in Cape Town, South Africa.
45 start-ups pitched on AfricArena's stage during the two-day Summit, which was co-hosted by TotalEnergies, AWS Startups, Technology Innovation Agency, GIZ SAIS, ESquared Investments, Wesgro, and the City of Cape Town.
As the summit closed on Wednesday, nine winners from over 40 pitching start-ups were named Africa's top tech start-ups in their respective categories. The AfricArena Grand Summit winners are listed below:
- Best AI & Deep Tech Startup Award: OkHi ( Nigeria)
- Agri Tech Startup Award: Djoli (Ivory Coast)
- Best Fintech Startup Award: Joro Cash (Morocco)
- Best Climate Tech Startup Award: Gjenge Makers ( Kenya)
- Best SaaS Startup Award: Cynoia ( Tunisia)
- Best Seed Startup Award: Letsoela Agro-Aviation (Lesotho)
- Best Startupper Award: Anda (Angola)
- Most Value Add Investor Award: Knife Capital.
- Most Promising Entrepreneur: Solimi (Togo)
The winners each won $25,000 in AWS Activate credits.
During his welcome address, Christophe Viarnaud, CEO of AfricArena, noted that the past two years have been difficult for both founders and investors as they navigate the fundraising winter while focussing on complicated problems.
He reminded the investors, start-ups, and ecosystem builders at the event that an economic slowdown is an excellent opportunity to invest, particularly in the African tech asset class.
"Now is the time to invest, Africa is not waiting for the future, we are shaping it," he said.
In his speech, Viarnaud described how, when he originally founded AfricArena in 2017, approximately $300 million in funding was trickling into the African continent.
He stated that this year's venture capital funding was more than $2 billion.
Viarnaud's message to startups, investors, ecosystem organisations, and the government was that he believes the African digital ecosystem will prosper.
Roger Norton, chief product officer at OkHi, the winner of the Best AI & Deep Tech Startup Award in Africa, expressed his appreciation.
He stated that his team does address verification in a regulated environment, and that winning the top AI startup award validates the ability to deploy technology in traditionally slow-moving industries.
He continued, "Particularly to help accelerate digital transformation and enabling economic agency for even the most disadvantaged communities.”
Gaël Egbid, co-founder and CEO of Solimi, expressed thanks to the organisers for recognising Togo's creativity in South Africa's AfricArena competition, which included many excellent start-ups.
“I’m speechless because this is huge for me, for my country and for my company. It means they will recognize the innovation coming from Togo here in South Africa because here in the AfricArena competition we have a lot of amazing startups. Being recognized as the most promising entrepreneur means a lot to me. I want to say thank you to AfricArena, to my country and to my company,” Egbid said
Keet van Zyl, co-founder and partner of Knife Finance, believes that receiving the Most Value Add Investor Award demonstrates Knife's commitment to supporting its portfolio companies beyond simply providing financing.