AfricArena is an African Tech ecosystem accelerator which accelerates the growth of tech startups and the ecosystem in which they operate by providing a platform where they can share their business model, gain valuable networks, and attain funding.

The startups that won the Southern African Summit were:

+ 123 Tutors (South Africa) as the Best pitch for Seed stage. Joseph Nyamariwata and Aaron Bornmann are the founders of 123 Tutors, a private tutoring in person or online for primary and high school students & university students, for each subject and module, across South Africa. Their goal is to make quality education at an affordable prize.

+ Lupiyaloans (Zambia) as the Best pitch for Series A. Evelyn Kaingu and Muchu Kaingu founded Lupiya, an online marketplace for microloans. It is a branch-less, innovative digital microfinance platform that leverages technology to make the process of borrowing simpler and easier so that people and businesses located across the Zambia even in rural, remote areas can access financial services.

+ EMGuidance (South Africa) as the Best Pitch for Growth Stage. Dr Yaseen Khan and Dr Mohammed Dalwai founded EMGuidance, South Africa’s first free comprehensive online and downloadable database of medicine information and healthcare practices. It includes drug dosages and location-specific treatment guidelines, with creative yet safe workarounds fitting each area’s resource availability.

+ AgriCool Finance (South Africa) as the Emerging Entrepreneur. Zamokuhle Thwala is the founder of AgriCool Finance, a digital crowd funding platform that enables individuals to empower small holder farmers who are deprived an access to finance by conventional banks by investing in their agribusinesses. They infuse more financial inclusiveness by linking small holder farmers with market access opportunities.

+ Snode Technologies (South Africa) as The Most Innovative Startup. Nithen Naidoo, is the founder of Snode Technologies, which leverages advanced mathematical algorithms and the power of learning machines to process large amounts of data. This provides insights into prevailing patterns to help identify and combat cybersecurity threats before a potential breach occurs.

+ AfriTrustGroup (South Africa) as the Best Investors Pitch. Lelembe Phiri is the of Afri Trust Group, a gender-lens investment organisation that is committed to investing in Africa’s women through: Early-stage gender-lens investment into their businesses, Developing the woman entrepreneur and the enterprise, providing critical business tools and process improvement support, Enabling access to markets through continental trade facilitation and business development.

The summit consisted of diverse guest speakers and the topics that were covered included education, venture capital, angel investment and corporate acquisitions. The summits that will follow will be: The West Africa Summit Senegal on the 28-30 June, The Northern Africa Summit Tunisia on the 1-3 September and The East African Summit on the 18-20th October.

We are definitely looking forward to learning about disruptive startups in the African continent and we believe that this summit is an amazing opportunity for startups in the continent to connect and collaborate even further!