IT Africa: the most interesting technology companies and startups of the continent

There is a powerful stereotype about the backwardness of the African continent. Yes, there are indeed a huge number of problems. However, IT in Africa is developing, and very rapidly. According to Partech Africa, a venture capital firm, in 2018, 146 startups from 19 countries raised 1.16 billion US dollars. Cloud4Y gave a short overview of the most interesting African startups and successful companies.

Agriculture

Agrix technology

Agrix Technology , based in Yaoundé (Cameroon), was founded in August 2018. The artificial intelligence-based platform is designed to help African farmers fight pests and plant diseases from their sources. The technology helps to identify plant diseases and offers both chemical and physical treatment, as well as preventive measures. Using Agrix Tech, farmers access the application on their mobile phone, scan a sample of the affected plant, and then find solutions. The application provides technology for recognizing text and voice in local African languages, so even not too literate people can use it. Farmers living and working in remote areas without the Internet can use the application because Agrix Tech AI does not require the Internet to work.



Agrocenta

AgroCenta is an innovative online platform from Ghana that allows small farmers and farming organizations in rural farming communities to access a broad online marketplace. AgroCenta was founded in 2015 by two former employees of the Esoko mobile operator, who wanted to simplify market access and access to finance. They understood that a lack of access to a structured market meant that small farmers were forced to sell their products to intermediaries at “ridiculously exploitative” prices. Lack of access to finance also means that farmers will never be able to move from small-scale farming to medium-sized or even grow to an industrial scale.



The AgroTrade and AgroPay platforms solve these two problems. AgroTrade is a comprehensive supply chain platform in which small farmers are at one end and large buyers at the other so that they can trade directly. This ensures that farmers are paid fair prices for their goods, and also allows them to sell in bulk, as buyers are usually very large companies: from breweries to feed manufacturers.



AgroPay, a financial accessibility platform, provides any small farmer who traded on AgroTrade with a financial (“banking”) statement that they can use to gain access to finance. Some financial institutions specializing in financing small farmers have used AgroPay to better understand which farmers are free to access loans. In a short time, according to the head of the company, it was possible to increase the income of farmers in the network by almost 25%.



Farmerline

Farmerline is another startup from Ghana that provides small farmers with access to information services, products and resources to increase their income. To date, more than 200,000 farmers are registered. In June 2018, Farmerline became one of the three startups to win King Baudouin's African Development Award, earning 75,000 Euros. The company was also selected to join the Swiss multi-corporate accelerator Kickstart, and was named the second best startup in the food industry.



Releaf

Releaf is an agro-stratap from Nigeria, which helps to increase sales of agricultural products due to a well-functioning supply chain for raw materials needed for agricultural enterprises in the country. Releaf builds trust between agribusiness stakeholders by allowing registered sellers to bid for verified contracts with buyers. The startup went out of stealth mode in August 2018, announcing that it had already tested over 600 agribusinesses and facilitated more than 100 contracts. Soon, he was selected to join the Y Combinator accelerator from Silicon Valley, and as a result received funding of $ 120,000.

Food

Waystocap

WaystoCap is a trading platform from Casablanca (Morocco), opened in 2015. The company allows African businesses to buy and sell products - allowing them to find products, check them, get financing and insurance, manage their supply and ensure payment security. The company prides itself in being able to provide small enterprises with the necessary tools and support in a short time to trade locally and internationally. This is the second African startup that has been selected to join the Y Combinator accelerator from Silicon Valley and received $ 120,000.



Vendo.ma

Vendo.ma is another Moroccan startup that offers users to search for products and services in popular online and traditional stores. The company was established in 2012, when the country started talking about e-commerce. A smart search system easily determines the needs of the user and gives him the opportunity to refine his search by adding tags to his searches, set the maximum or minimum price and find stores on the interactive map. Thanks to the rapid growth, the startup received $ 265,000 in seed investments.

Finance

Piggybank / PiggyVest

Piggybank , also known as PiggyVest (meaning piggy bank) is a financial service that helps Nigerians curb their spending habits by improving their savings culture by automating deposits (daily, weekly or monthly) to achieve a specific savings goal. The service also allows you to block funds for a certain period of time. With PiggyVest, people learn to manage their money rationally and even invest. The real problem for many Africans is that money comes down quickly and without a trace. PiggyVest helps to leave at least something.



Kuda

Kuda (formerly Kudimoney) is a fintech startup from Nigeria that appeared in 2016. In fact, it is a retail bank, but it works only in digital format. Almost like the domestic Tinkoff Bank and its analogues. This is the first digital bank in Nigeria with a separate license, which compares it favorably with other financial startups. Kuda offers an expense and savings account without a monthly fee, a free debit card, and also plans to offer consumer savings and P2P payments. The startup has attracted $ 1.6 million investment.



Sun exchange

Sun Exchange is a blockchain startup from South Africa, which appeared in 2015. He was named the winner of the Blockchain Challenge organized by the Smart Dubai office, receiving funding of $ 1.6 million. The companies also proposed to install several solar panels with a capacity of 1 MW on the roof of some higher education institutions in Dubai. The startup is designed to help people start investing in solar energy, receive a steady income, and promote the growth of the role of green technologies in different parts of the world. The platform uses the crowd-sale principle, which is similar to crowdfunding, but uses mainly digital assets instead of real currency. Sun Exchange provides the opportunity to invest minimally in energy projects. You can buy individual solar panels in small SES, and the owners of such energy sources can receive their share of the income from the sale of electricity generated.

Electrification

Zola

Off Grid Electric - a company from the city of Arusha (Tanzania), recently received the name Zola. The company operates in the solar energy sector, promoting innovative environmental technologies in poor rural areas, where kerosene lamps, deforestation and a lack of constant power supply prevail. Off-grid Grid Electric startup from Tanzania installs cheap solar panels on the roofs of houses to produce energy in rural Africa. And the company asks for them only $ 6 (the kit includes a meter, LED lamps, a radio and a phone charger). Plus, the same $ 6 you need to pay monthly for maintenance. Zola supplies solar panels, lithium batteries and lamps from the manufacturer to end customers, which significantly reduces the cost of production. In this way, the company fights poverty and environmental issues in rural Africa. Since 2012, first Off Grid Electric, and then Zola attracted more than $ 58 million from international investors, including Solar City, DBL Partners, Vulcan Capital, as well as USAID - the United States Agency for International Development.



M-kopa

M-Kopa - Kenya's Zola startup competitor helps households that are not connected to electricity. The power of the solar panels sold by M-Kopa is enough for two bulbs, a radio, a recharge of a flashlight and a telephone (everything except the last one is supplied with the battery). The user pays about 3,500 Kenyan shillings (about $ 34) immediately, then - 50 shillings (about 45 cents) per day. M-Kopa batteries are used by over 800,000 homes and businesses in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. For six years, the startup has attracted more than $ 41 million of investments. The largest investors are LGT Venture Philanthropy and Generation Investment Management. According to Jesse Moore, CEO and co-founder of the company, M-Kopa customers will receive projected savings of $ 450 million over the next four years, as they receive coverage without kerosene.

Trade

Jumia

Jumia is another startup from Lagos, Nigeria (yes, they not only write letters of happiness there, but they also develop IT). Now it is actually an analogue of the well-known Aliexpress, but more convenient in terms of the services provided. Five years ago, the company started with the sale of clothing and electronics, and now it is a large marketplace where you can buy everything from food to cars or real estate. It is also convenient at Jumia to look for work and book a hotel room. Jumia does business in 23 countries that produce 90% of the African continent's GDP (including Ghana, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco and Egypt). In 2016, the company had more than 3,000 employees, and in 2018, Jumia processed more than 13 million orders. The company invests not only African, but also international investors. Last March, she received $ 326 million from a pool of investors, which included Goldman Sachs, AXA and MTN. and became the first African unicorn to receive a valuation of $ 1 billion.



Sokowatch

Sokowatch , an interesting startup from Kenya, launched in 2013, increases the availability of everyday consumer goods, allowing small stores to place orders from various international suppliers at any time via SMS. Orders are then processed through the Sokowatch system, and courier services are notified of the need to deliver the order to the store in the next 24 hours. Using accumulated procurement data, Sokowatch evaluates retailers to provide them access to loans and other financial services that are usually not available to small businesses. Sokowatch was named one of the three winners of the Innotribe Startup Challenge, developed at the World Bank's XL Africa startup accelerator.



Sky garden

Sky.Garden from Kenya is actually a startup platform offering small business software as a service ( SaaS ) tailored specifically for African businesses. The easy-to-use Sky.garden online store allows private traders, small businesses and companies of different levels to sell their products. A few months after the launch, the startup showed a steady 25% increase in monthly order volumes. This made it possible for him to participate in the three-month development program for the Norwegian accelerator Katapult with financial support of $ 100,000.

Entertainment

Tupuka

Tupuka is an Angolan startup that offered a unique food delivery service for the country. Launched in 2015, it became the first platform in Angola that allows users to order from several restaurants directly from their smartphone. Now the company has over 200,000 active customers. It is funny that at the very beginning of development, the company was unable to take a prize in the Angolan stage of the Seedstars World startups competition. But in 2017, they finalized their decision and again applied for fate. And this time they won. Now the company offers delivery of not only food, but also medicines, as well as purchases from supermarkets.



Paypass

PayPass is a Nigerian startup that streamlines the process of buying and selling tickets for any events in the country (seminars, public dinners, movie shows, concerts, etc.). Users can create their own events, share them on social networks, register their audience, buy and sell tickets, while payments are processed through a third-party payment processor Paystack.

Technologies

Will & brothers

Will & Brothers is an interesting company from Cameroon, which appeared in 2015 and is actively creating startups. The most famous and popular of them offers solutions for drones, drones based on artificial intelligence. The company developed the Cyclops AI, which can help drones detect people, objects, and vehicles and identify different types of animals in specific places. The project is called Drone Africa. The TEKI VR project, focused on the use of virtual reality technologies, has also recently been launched.



Mainone

MainOne is a popular provider from Nigerian Lagos. The company provides telecommunication services and network solutions throughout West Africa. Since its launch in 2010, MainOne has begun providing services to large telecom operators, Internet service providers, government agencies, small and large enterprises, and educational institutions in West Africa. MainOne also owns a subsidiary of the MDX-i data center. MDX-i, with the first Tier III data center in West Africa and the only ISO 9001, 27001, PCI DSS, and SAP Infrastructure Services certified hosting center, provides hybrid cloud services domestically. (Cloud4Y, as a cloud provider , simply had to add this company to the list :))



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