Eight (8) promising female startup founders captivated an audience of over 300 investors, ecosystem leaders, and delegates during Deal Morning at the 11th annual Africa Early Stage Investor Summit (AESIS) in Cape Town, South Africa, an event cohosted by VC4A and ABAN that highlighted the growing collaboration among investors, startups, and support organizations across Africa.
The founders, representing the VC4A Venture Showcase —She Wins Africa edition, pitched their innovations that address critical challenges in agriculture, fintech, e-commerce, and health in Africa. Their participation was the culmination of VC4A’s award-winning Technical Residency program, an investment-readiness intervention aimed at preparing early-stage founders for scale and funding.
Prior to their pitches, the eight (8) ‘She Winners’ received tailored training, and expert mentorship during the Technical Residency, enabling them to pitch confidently to the audience.
Anne Kabugi, Regional Gender Lead at IFC opened the showcase pitches with a thought-provoking question: “What if I told you that Africa’s food crisis is going to be solved by women?” With this provocative statement, she highlighted the critical role women entrepreneurs play in addressing some of the continent’s most pressing challenges. The event was a testament to the innovative spirit of female-led startups, showcasing solutions that span fintech, e-commerce, agriculture, and health.
Eight (8) groundbreaking startups then took to the stage, each presenting transformative solutions to drive progress in their respective sectors. From Kenya, Cladfy Inc. demonstrated a fintech innovation that facilitates lending for the informal sector, while GoBEBA Everything Ltd. showcased its e-commerce utility platform, enhancing access to essential resources. Guinea’s Paycard SA introduced a mobile money app designed to boost financial inclusion, and Nigeria’s Agriarche Limited unveiled a digitized platform revolutionizing agricultural trade.
Zambia’s Eshandi empowers underserved populations through financial services, and Ghana’s Farmio addresses agricultural supply chain inefficiencies with tech-driven solutions. Cameroon’s Yellow Factoring highlighted an invoice factoring platform tailored for SMEs, and Nigeria’s Advantage Health Africa demonstrated its innovative approach to providing access to genuine, affordable medicines.
Collectively, these 8 startups embody the potential of women-led enterprises to shape a resilient and inclusive future for Africa.
The startup founders pitched alongside 15 promising portfolio companies from 5 organizations — DEG Impulse: develoPPP Ventures, Digital Africa: Fuze, Ennovate Ventures: TheNextFund, Open Startup, and the GIZ: SAIS program. The high caliber of startups and the strategic insights shared by the judging panel created a launchpad moment for the future of the African startup ecosystem, showcasing innovative and impactful solutions to real problems.
The She Wins Africa program, implemented by VC4A in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs with the tools, networks, and exposure needed to thrive.
