Two Ugandan apps made it to the TOP 40!
This year’s DEMO Africa conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 24 to 25 October, and will feature 40 entrepreneurs hailing from Cape Town to Cairo presenting their innovative technologies. The entrepreneurs will be pitching to a mix of everyone from investors and fellow entrepreneurs to the tech media. So, what can we expect to see?
The 40 startups listed below are the ones that have made it through a series of screening processes out of a total of 300 submitted applications this year. The five categories for the conference are Mobile Technology, Social Media, Consumer Products, Cloud Services and Enterprise Technologies.
DEMO Africa part of LIONS@frica‘s flagship initiatives. LIONS@frica (Liberalizing Innovation Opportunity Nations) is an initiative by the US Department of State, in collaboration with Microsoft, DEMO, USAID, and Startup Weekend, that aims to further public-private alliance to enhance and deepen the startup and innovation ecosystems of targeted fast-growing African economies.
DEMO Africa points out some positive growth indicators of the African continent. For example, real startups are being created on the continent where the potential for growth is massive — population figures in Sub-Saharan Africa are set to grow by 5% this year and Africa is home to about 15% of the world’s population. It further points out that DEMO Africa Alumni have managed to raise over US$8-million in just one year.
So, who made the cut this year? VC4Africa put together a list of the 40 startups and their countries of origin:
So, who made the cut this year? VC4Africa put together a list of the 40 startups and their countries of origin:
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The Able Wireless Companyprovides an on-demand entertainment system and content delivery network that is localized to every single locale in the region. | Kenya | |
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Anasodiabitiz helps people living with diabetes coordinate their healthcare online. | South Africa | |
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BoxBuzz is an SMS alert system which sends text message to owners of Post Office Box addresses whenever they receive a letter in their boxes. | Ghana | |
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BrainShare is an academic application that offers a one-stop-centre for students revision, with well organised notes, ebooks and past papers. | Uganda | |
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Center for Affordable Housing provides a web-based dynamic business intelligence tool to find areas of development opportunity, and more. | South Africa | |
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Chamasoft is a simple to use web and mobile app helping investment groups and chamas to manage all their group activities and communications. | Kenya | |
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ChopUP is a social platform that connects mobile device gamers across Africa and allows them to interact based on in-game achievements and transferrable points. | Nigeria | |
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Dibsr is an online community for sharing the things and places you love. | Ethiopia | |
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Dinero Social Savings System / ChamaPesa provides a multi-OS software platform that allows Chamas to manage their offerings and members to hold and manage their balances on their phones. | Kenya | |
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Dream Mobile provides tailored communications solutions to consumers and SME enterprises, with a specialization in smart devices. | South Africa | |
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DUMA Works is an SMS-based recruiting service that connects employers with top qualified job seekers, based on skill, geographic location, past employer reviews, and social network. | Kenya | |
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Eduze provides everyone equal access to the learning, loving and LOLing that digital content offers. | South Africa | |
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Eventtus is a networking platform for events where users can explore events and socialize with like minded people during events. we build a community for each event and help organizers and attendees interact before, during and after events. | Egypt | |
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Famissima is a social platform that connects families to each other and to products and services they need. | Tunis | |
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Faselty is an online donation organizing system to facilitate the blood donation process. Mobile integrated. Location and blood type based. | Egypt | |
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Fraudcracker offers an online technology solution to help companies identify and combat fraud. | South Africa | |
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Gmaven vis provides the most user-friendly business intelligence and analytics product. | South Africa | |
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Gmobile is a set of proprietary apps for all smartphone operating systems- Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian and Windows. It is a softphone running on your current smartphone. | Kenya | |
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GoMetro is a dynamic innovation, the first of its kind in South Africa, that provides real-time public transport information to commuters. | South Africa | |
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Jooist is a social gaming network for mobile phones. Jooist enables users to discover games, play with friends, compare scores, share achievements and a whole lot more. | Kenya | |
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KARIBU Solar Power is an innovative solar social enterprise that makes high quality solar power affordable. | Tanzania | |
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M-Duka is an online platform that allows consumers to purchase virtual products and services on the GO using an internet enabled device such as a mobile phone, PC or POS. | Uganda | |
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Next Level is an engineering start-up specialized in developing electronic manufacturing execution systems. | Morocco | |
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Notafy is set to revolutionise the way corporates communicate with their customers via mobile phone. | South Africa | |
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Obami connects educators, learners, parents, businesses, NGO’s and governments. | South Africa | |
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OTGPlaya is an affordable platform solution that brings “accessibility” to critically underserved sectors. | Nigeria | |
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RAMP is a new innovative web app developed to simplify the management process of Resident Associations in Nigeria or anywhere in the world. | Nigeria | |
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RemoteCycle is the Recurly of the emerging markets; the software as a service provides recurring billing and payment management for subscription-based companies in East Africa and India. | Kenya | |
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Save & Buy is a web and mobile platform that enables anyone save towards any item they desire in an easy to use, fun and safe environment. | Nigeria | |
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Sky Energy is a renewable energy company with a focus on solar technology. | Zimbabwe | |
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SleepOut is the region’s most comprehensive booking engine featuring 1,000+ options, listing all accommodation from beach huts to house rentals and all-inclusive resorts. | Kenya | |
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Splinter.me is a new social recruiting platform built on top of automatic data integration from multiple social networks, to facilitate the recruiting process for both job-seekers and recruiters. | Egypt | |
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Spyros Entertainment is a video gaming studio specialized in mobile games, providing hardcore gamers with midcore games that fit the experience they used to get on their consoles. | Egypt | |
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Sstream-TV is a content aggregator and distributor via a streaming platform across the African continent and focused on Southern Africa. | South Africa | |
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Teranga Hospitality Suite is a suite of Web and Mobile Applications for hospitality professionals in Africa. | Senegal | |
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UBONGO is a Tanzanian social enterprise that creates engaging and locally relevant multimedia content for learners in Africa. | Tanzania | |
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ViViFi provides touch sticker technology is a new human-object interface that is capable of transforming all non-conductive surfaces with limited thickness (wood, glass, etc.) into touch sensors or screens. | Egypt | |
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Wireles Mobile Phone Charger charges as you walk: you generate pressure that in turn generates energy. Once you have arrived you can sit down and charge your mobile phone. | Kenya | |
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Xtendevent (formerly known as Afritradecentre.com) is an online platform that integrates virtual conferences and exhibitions, social media-styled business networking and e-commerce enabled trading. | South Africa | |
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Zehoo is the next step of technological innovation in the cloud storage industry, which simplifies document storage services in ways unseen in the market. | South Africa |
Credit: VentureBurn
