The 5th edition of DEMO Africa 2016 was a force to be reckoned with, the two-day event which took place at Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg on 25 and 26 August for the first time had 27 startups garnering for the Silicon Valley destination.
The journey which began earlier this year with 723 applications from 46 countries then shortlisting was done on its first leg to bring about 131 applications and the final with 30 startups from 7 countries.
While announcing the winners, Stephen Ozoigbo, the CEO at African Technology Foundation, the agency implementing the LIONS@FRICA initiative said the companies that have been picked have a global outlook and can benefit by seeing how other such companies are doing in the United States.
“These companies have a global appeal and have the highest potential to becoming global companies,” said Ozoigbo. “By participating in the innovation tour, we are helping to connecting these companies to the global innovation ecosystem and also continue connecting them to potential investors,” he concluded.
Out of the 27 startups only five get to head to Silicon Valley:
Strauss Energy (Kenya)
AN energy startups that sells electricity to homeowners and organizations cheaper than the national grid.The power is generated from the innovative BIPV Stima 2in1 solar roofing tiles that is manufactured in Kenya
Mediabox (South Africa)
MediaBox is a device that allows users watch both on-demand and live TV over the internet.
ConnectMed (South Africa)
Online machine learning-enabled telehealth platform that allows patients to seek treatment from expert doctors over video for common ailments, either directly through app (ConnectMed Prime) or indirectly through clinic partners (ConnectMed Care)
SORTD (South Africa)
The product suite is aimed at helping people escalate conversations into action right from the source. Sortd will work seamlessly with Email, IM, Skype, Slack etc.
Solstice Energy Solutions (Nigeria)
Solstice helps Nigerian households save money by providing insight into energy consumption patterns by measuring both utility grid and generator usage. The integrated hardware & software platform provide data that can be used to track energy usage, set budgets, and get energy saving tips through the Solstice mobile app.
Credit: CIO, DEMO Africa
