TECH STARS

TECH STARS (682)

Ingenious City is a DR Congo-based hub that connects entrepreneurs and enables them to collaborate for the development of impactful solutions. It has already incubated over a hundred projects and continues to promote entrepreneurship. 

Ingenious City, a Congolese incubator founded in 2018 by Alexis Indenge and François Ngenyi, promotes entrepreneurship and fosters connections among ecosystem players in DR Congo. Its main goal is to cultivate collaboration among entrepreneurs to create impactful solutions.

In practical terms, Ingenious City offers tailored training modules focused on entrepreneurship, specifically designed for the Congolese ecosystem. The incubator offers guidance and advice to enhance the performance of innovative ideas. To facilitate networking and cooperation, Ingenious City provides a well-equipped 1,200-square-meter physical workspace for entrepreneurs. Through its business incubation service, it supports the launch of startups by offering a professional workspace and access to essential resources, including financing.

Ingenious City identifies projects that provide tangible solutions to societal challenges, offering them logistical support and financial backing to kickstart their operations. The incubator extends its support to projects spanning technology, agri-food, industry, and services.

Leveraging a network of over 150 experts and mentors, Ingenious City has successfully incubated over 100 projects since its inception. The incubator enjoys support from more than 25 partners and sponsors, including RAWBANK.

Melchior Koba

Posted On mercredi, 20 décembre 2023 15:39 Written by

He studied business administration, accounting, and finance. However, he specializes in communications and digital technology. He developed, with his team, an app to facilitate fleet management. 

Loic Kapitho (photo), a seasoned Gabonese entrepreneur with expertise in communications and digital sectors, co-founded POZI App, a tracking application designed to make life easier for vehicle owners and fleet managers.

The entrepreneur holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from ICN Business School, earned in 2008, and a master's degree in accounting and finance from Gabon's National Institute of Management Sciences, also obtained in the same year. In 2020, he joined forces with Thomas Leluc to establish POZI App, aiming to empower vehicle owners and fleet managers by providing tools for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing their business operations.

Specializing in vehicle tracking and fleet management, POZI App analyzes users' journey performance, identifying risks, and highlighting opportunities across all their vehicles.

"Our application has three specific features. Firstly, we offer the most accurate and local mapping on the market. Secondly, we offer a modern, innovative user experience with, for example, the possibility of real-time, contextualized incident notifications on one's smartphone and automatically generated analytical reports. Our interface is very 'user friendly', accessible, and takes into account the increasing mobility of users," said the entrepreneur in 2021. 

POZI App's ambition is to become the market leader in Gabon by 2024. The startup has already reached the symbolic milestone of 1,000 active vehicles, positioning itself as a benchmark application for businesses and semi-professionals.

Loic Kapitho is also the founder and CEO of TOUCH Innovative, a digital communications agency and digital advertising sales house set up in 2016. He is also chairman of TECH 241, Gabon's technology business union, which brings together major companies and professionals in the digital and technology sectors. 

His professional career began in 2008 at Trade & Services, a Gabonese SME specializing in graphic design and creation, where he was director. Between 2011 and 2015, he worked at JTC Consulting in Gabon as Strategy and Communications Manager.

Melchior Koba

Posted On mercredi, 20 décembre 2023 13:47 Written by

Through its programs and activities, TechBuzz Hub empowers young African entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions. With international awards to its credit, it continues its ascent, impacting Africa.

TechBuzz Hub is a Ugandan startup incubator and coworking space helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into sustainable businesses. Established in 2016 by Keneth Twesigye, who serves as its CEO, the hub is dedicated to fostering the growth of early-stage startups led by individuals aged 18 to 35.

Its offerings to achieve that goal encompass inclusive coworking spaces, startup incubation programs, and informative seminars. Beyond physical spaces, the hub extends critical business development services, including mentoring, consulting, and networking opportunities. These initiatives have proven instrumental in empowering numerous entrepreneurs, enabling them to fulfill their dreams and turn their ideas into reality.

TechBuzz Hub introduced Offisa, a virtual space network serving as a remote office that allows entrepreneurs to efficiently manage their business operations.  It also organizes meetings that bring together entrepreneurs, startups, and business owners, fostering collaboration, and sharing of experiences, and providing a platform to track company progress while benefiting from expert support.

The incubator also hosts the Fortnyt Series, a series of fortnightly workshops designed to offer mentor-to-entrepreneur and peer-to-peer technical assistance. Additionally, the hub has launched the Young Professionals Program, geared towards supporting recent graduates and those entering the job market. This program focuses on equipping young individuals with practical skills and knowledge highly sought after in the job market, enhancing their job readiness.

TechBuzz Hub's commitment to capacity building is evident in its diverse training programs covering business modeling, roadmap, and strategy development, project management, business planning, graphic design, website design, computer applications, and financial projections. These training courses are designed to be open and customized, providing a holistic approach to building business capacity.

In 2023, the incubator won the prize for best coworking space at the Global Startup Awards Africa. A member of the AfriLabs network, it is supported by Mastercard Foundation and Startup Uganda, among others.

Melchior Koba

Posted On mercredi, 20 décembre 2023 11:51 Written by

Across Africa, a fintech revolution is underway, fuelled by over $2.7 billion in investment since 2021. In Kenya, where the scene is particularly fertile, 24-year-old Collins Kathuli exemplifies a new generation of entrepreneurs democratizing access to financial services. 

Collins Kathuli (photo), a Kenyan computer scientist and technology entrepreneur with a focus on the finance sector, is the co-founder and CEO of Kyanda, a startup committed to providing affordable financial services and addressing the issue of unbanked and underbanked populations in Africa.

Established in 2019, Kyanda's vision is to offer secure and convenient access to financial services at an affordable rate, efficiently and transparently, to reach everyone, anytime. The platform facilitates money transfers, payments, and bill settlements from the comfort of users' homes, catering to both individuals looking to streamline their finances and business owners seeking to optimize financial operations. Having successfully served over 10,000 users in Kenya, Kyanda recently expanded its reach to South Africa. The platform notably enables South Africans to form or join groups to collectively save money towards shared objectives.

Collins Kathuli earned his Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from KCA University in March 2023. Since 2021, he has been actively contributing as a mentor at Techstars Startup Weekend Nairobi, a 54-hour event designed to provide valuable experiential training for both technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.

The winner of the Anzisha Prize 2022 has received several awards and distinctions during his entrepreneurial career. In 2020, at the FOYA Awards, he received the fintech founder of the year award in East Africa, and in 2021 the first prize at the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards. In 2022, his company was voted best fintech in Kenya, and he won the Fintech Innovator of the Year award at the Africatech Festival.

Melchior Koba

Posted On mardi, 19 décembre 2023 14:38 Written by

Driven by a passion to empower African businesses, he returned to his native Benin after his agro-economics and veterinary studies in China. He has since launched an e-commerce platform that connects African businesses to global markets.

Yarou Bao Sero Razack (photo) is a veterinary surgeon and agro-economist hailing from Benin. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Ahiyoyo, a startup dedicated to streamlining the procurement, distribution, and payment processes for companies, resulting in significant time and cost savings.

Ahiyoyo was born in 2019 to connect businesses with international suppliers and local consumers. Its primary aim is to assist enterprises in reducing procurement costs, expanding their operations across diverse African countries, and facilitating seamless transactions with global suppliers, ultimately enhancing overall profitability.

In a recent interview with We Are Tech Africa, Yarou Bao Sero Razack outlined Ahiyoyo's ambitious plans for the future. The company has extended its presence beyond Benin, deploying team members to Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. Ahiyoyo's future roadmap includes geographical expansion through the establishment of warehouses and agencies, diversification of services, forging strategic partnerships, and a commitment to continuous innovation. The CEO explains that the startup eyes 25,000 transitions by December 2025 as well as $3 million in turnover and 1,000 registered businesses by that timeline. 

Recently in Togo, the entrepreneur took part in Ocean's News' L'Afrik De Demain (ADD) program and was awarded the prize for second best African entrepreneur. Expressing his satisfaction with the recognition, he told We Are Tech Africa: “The award I received during Ocean's News' L'Afrik De Demain program represents a significant recognition of my efforts as an African entrepreneur. Being ranked second-best African entrepreneur at this annual conference is a source of immense pride and a validation of the work accomplished with Ahiyoyo.”

On the educational front, Yarou Bao Sero Razack holds a veterinary medicine degree from Hunan Agricultural University (2018) and a master's degree in agricultural economics from Southwest University (2021). 

A board member of edtech Yasiri and a business mentor at VC4A (Venture Capital for Africa), he worked in China at HIMANX, a Chinese tobacco company, where he was a brand development specialist from 2019 to 2020.

In addition to the ADD award, the entrepreneur received several other distinctions in 2023. A member of the ForbesBLK community, he was one of the top 25 founders selected for the Westerwelle Foundation's Young Founders Programme. He is also a FAST Accelerator Fellow. 

Melchior Koba

Posted On mardi, 19 décembre 2023 14:27 Written by

She joined the CcHub technology innovation center in 2021 as co-founder and managing partner of Creative Economy Practice. Her appointment as head of the center is the result of her leadership in these previous positions.

Ojoma Ochai (photo), a Nigerian creative economy expert with a specialization diploma in Network Engineering from the NIIT Abuja Centre in 2005, has assumed the role of Managing Director at Co-creation Hub (CcHub). Her appointment was officially announced on Thursday, December 14, 2023.

Taking over as Managing director from co-founder Bosun Tidjani, who currently serves as Nigeria's Minister of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Ojoma Ochai is now responsible for overseeing the strategy and team of Co-creation Hub Africa. This includes the management of CcHub Design Lab Rwanda, CcHub Namibia, CcHub Syndicate, Creative Economy Practice at CcHub, and iHub Kenya.

"I am proud of the work that CcHUB has achieved since 2010 and it is a great honor of my life to take a deeper step into CcHUB as its Managing Director. I stand on the shoulders of giants Dr. Bosun Tijani, Femi Longe, and Adetunji Eleso and previous leaders and managers at CcHUB who have built a phenomenal African organization that I am now truly honored to lead,"  she posted on her LinkedIn page. 

Before this appointment, the Nigerian was the Managing Partner of Creative Economy Practice, a CcHub unit dedicated to stimulating innovation and the application of technology for the development of the creative economy in Africa.

Ojoma Ochai sits on several boards, including ₿trust, backed by tech and creative industry leaders Jack Dorsey and Jay Z to support the development of Bitcoin Open Source in the Global South. She has also been a member of the UNESCO Expert Group since 2012. Between 2010 and 2021, she worked for the British Council. There, she successively held the positions of Director of Arts in Nigeria (2010-2017) and East Africa (2017-2018), Director of Programmes in the Sub-Saharan Africa region (2018-2020) and Regional Director of Programmes for the Arts and Creative Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa (2020-2021).

For her work and dedication, Ojoma Ochai was named, by Y Naija Magazine, as one of the 10 most influential people under 40 in arts and culture in Nigeria in 2014, as well as one of the 100 most influential Nigerians and 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria in 2015.

Melchior Koba

Posted On mardi, 19 décembre 2023 03:03 Written by

The incubator provides six months of intensive support to companies in the ideation stage. Its incubation program has empowered over 200 projects in Tunisia across three editions. 

Founded in 2015, Afkar Incubator is a Tunis (Tunisia) -based incubator currently led by Walid Hached and Houssem Aouidi.

The incubator aims to empower individuals with innovative ideas for social change. It supports social innovators by nurturing them into change catalysts, content creators, and influential figures in civil society- individuals poised to become tomorrow's leaders of change. It particularly focuses on projects in the ideation phase that demonstrate creative solutions to existing problems.

Its flagship initiative is a free six-month incubation program that provides a collaborative and diverse environment that encourages collaborative intelligence, friendship, and a wealth of experiences. Entrepreneurs in the program concentrate on formulating their value proposition, conducting experiments, testing and validating hypotheses, developing business plans, creating proof of concept and minimum viable product (MVP), building their brand, and raising awareness.

Addressing the need for greater inclusion of women in the entrepreneurial sector, Afkar Incubator has introduced a program called Afkar Mubadirat. This initiative creates networking opportunities for women across different regions of the country, with recent launches in Jendouba and Sidi Bouzid.

In terms of impact, the incubator has supported 264 projects and 450 grantees, with 56% being men and 44% women. It has financed 54 projects and incubated 42 entrepreneurs in regional innovation hubs spread across seven regions of Tunisia. Thanks to the program, 131 startups have been launched, and 63 have received accreditation.

Among the notable technology companies Afkar Incubator has supported are JTKids, a series of technological construction games for children promoting creative experiences and playful learning; ODIOFIL, a platform offering a variety of audio content, from radio podcasts to audiobooks; IDARA, an online guide facilitating access to administrative procedures in Tunisia; and JAM, an artist matchmaking and creative space reservation application.

Afkar Incubator achieved these results with the help of its partners, including the National Deposit and Consignment Fund (CDC),  French technical cooperation agency Expertise France, French development agency AFD, the European Union, Germanic Development Agency GIZ, Agence française de développement, the European Union, GIZ, capacity-building project ProGreS Migration and global incubator Faster Capital.

Melchior Koba

Posted On lundi, 18 décembre 2023 13:38 Written by

A biomedical engineering doctor, he dedicates his efforts to enhancing radiology services. Through his work with Intixel, an artificial intelligence-based platform, he empowers radiologists to minimize diagnostic errors, enhance productivity, and mitigate the risk of disease progression.

Egyptian-born Mustafa Elattar (photo) is a biomedical engineering, image analysis, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence expert. He is also the founder and CEO of Intixel, a company specializing in cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions for medical imaging.

He holds a master's degree in communication and information technology from Nile University, earned in 2010, and a PhD in biomedical engineering and physics from the University of Amsterdam, completed in 2016.

Established in 2018, his company, Intixel, empowers medical imaging companies to leverage artificial intelligence for product enhancement. Functioning as a supplementary diagnostic tool, Intixel aids radiologists in swiftly identifying anomalies, thereby reducing diagnostic errors. Intixel also assists radiologists in prioritizing high-risk patients, ultimately enhancing their overall productivity. By optimizing workflow efficiency, the platform enables professionals to examine more patients each day, thereby mitigating the risk of disease progression exacerbated by prolonged waiting lists.

Since 2017, Mustafa Elattar has served as an assistant professor at Nile University. His earlier career includes roles as a research assistant and PhD student at the Academic Medical Center from 2012 to 2016, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in 2016. From 2017 to 2018, he served as the Head of Research at Myocardial Solutions Inc., a medical technology company dedicated to transforming cardiac and cancer care.

He is also a prolific author with over 68 journal articles and conference publications, disseminating his research ideas and innovations. In 2019, he won the pitch deck and best health-tech startup award at the Takeoff Istanbul International Startup Summit. He also received the Fareed Bader Award at the World Entrepreneurs and Investment Forum (WEIF). In addition, his company was in the top 5 start-ups at the Young Business Hub Entrepreneurship Investment Summit in Bahrain. In 2022, he received the IVLP Impact Award from the US State Department for an artificial intelligence hackathon project he launched on behalf of Nile University.

Melchior Koba

Posted On vendredi, 15 décembre 2023 12:02 Written by

Driven by a bold vision to transform eSwatini into a tech titan, King Mswati III spearheaded the creation of the Royal Science & Technology Park, a hub fostering scientific advancement and innovation.

The Royal Science & Technology Park (RSTP) is a science and technology hub established in 2007 in the Kingdom of eSwatini. Its inception, fueled by the forward-thinking vision of King Mswati III, was formalized through the enactment of the Royal Science & Technology Park Act in 2012. Spearheading this innovative initiative is Vumile Dlamini.

RSTP's main mission is to champion science, technology, and innovation within Eswatini, fostering an environment that cultivates research, development, and entrepreneurial endeavors. Spanning an expansive 317.17 hectares, the park comprises two distinct sites: the Nokwane Site and the Phocweni Site.

Dedicated to information technology services and products, the Phocweni Site boasts a specialized training center known as the Advanced School of IT. Affiliated with Aptech, a global leader in training solutions, this center caters to both retail and corporate sectors. Furthermore, the site hosts a business incubator designed to stimulate innovation in pivotal sectors such as information and communication technologies, biotechnology, agriculture and food, climate and the environment, waste management (green solutions), and indigenous knowledge systems.

Notably, the Phocweni Site is equipped with essential infrastructure, including a national contact center and a national data center. The latter plays a crucial role in delivering secure, efficient, and reliable ICT services to businesses while actively contributing to the advancement of e-government and championing digital inclusion throughout the Kingdom of eSwatini.

The second site, Nokwane, houses a research unit that serves as a multi-purpose platform for research and development in biotechnology-related technologies, production, product marketing, and trade.

Under the Kingdom's Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act 2018, the Royal Science & Technology Park has been designated a Special Economic Zone.

Melchior Koba

Posted On vendredi, 15 décembre 2023 11:34 Written by

For more than 19 years, he has dedicated his efforts through Silulo Ulutho Technologies to narrow the digital divide and enhance the quality of life for his fellow citizens. His impactful work has earned him numerous national and international awards.

Luvuyo Rani (photo) is a South African entrepreneur and the CEO of Silulo Ulutho Technologies, a company that sets up community businesses and career centers in South Africa's slums and rural communities, creating employment opportunities for thousands of unemployed young people.

He completed his studies at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce and Education in 2002, followed by a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2004. He furthered his education by earning an Associate's Degree in Management from the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business in 2007. In 2018, he enhanced his leadership skills by completing the Certificate in Leadership for System Change from Harvard Business School Executive Education.

The entrepreneur founded Silulo Ulutho Technologies in 2004 with his brother Lonwabo Rani. The company provides slum and rural populations with accessible infrastructure, a support network, skills development services, and digital connectivity through its community-centric career and business centers.

Since 2021, Luvuyo Rani has been a board member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, a high-quality support network of over 18,000 business founders and owners. Before founding Silulo Ulutho Technologies, he taught accounting and business economics at KwaMfundo Secondary School from 2001 to 2004.

His entrepreneurial endeavors and significant social impact have earned him numerous accolades. Notable awards include the 2007 Cape Times/KPMG Entrepreneur of the Year, the 2008 SAB Kick-Start Award as second runner-up in the Western Cape, the 2011 Endeavour Global Entrepreneur recognition, and the 2014 acknowledgment as one of the "Ten Outstanding People of the Year" by Junior Chamber International. In 2015, he was honored with a diploma from Tsiba Education, and in 2016, he received the prestigious title of Social Entrepreneur of the Year from the Schwab Foundation.

Melchior Koba

Posted On jeudi, 14 décembre 2023 13:10 Written by
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