15 WINNERS
The Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG), in partnership with The Unique Summit, Global StartupCities, UVU Africa and the City of Cape Town, proudly hosted the GSA Africa Finale in Cape Town at The Avenue. The highly anticipated announcement of the top 15 GSA Africa Continental Winners for Edition 11 were celebrated, the evening was filled with excitement and celebration as the global community united to honor these trailblazers. Under the theme "Spotlight Innovation in the Heart of Africa," this inspiring summit celebrated the exceptional achievements of African startups, shining a light on the continent’s transformative potential in the global innovation landscape.
The event welcomed ambassadors, international investors, corporate leaders, and government officials from across the continent, all demonstrating a shared commitment to nurturing the African startup ecosystem. With representation from over 10 African countries including; Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Angola, Cameroon, DRC, Gabon, Botswana, South Africa and Egypt, the summit was a powerful testament to Africa's innovation prowess and its boundless potential on the global stage.
best AGRI TECH
Winich Farms from Nigeria 🇳🇬, is an agritech startup building the commerce infrastructure and embedded finance for Africa's rural small holder farmers, informal processors and retailers. Connecting informal processors and retailers to their inventory needs directly from small holder farmers using mobile technology while leveraging AI to build small holder farmers a credit score based of their transaction history.
Best HEALTH TECH
Pharmarun from Nigeria 🇳🇬, is an on-demand platform that provides fast and easy access to medication by aggregating a network of pharmacies and logistic partners. They are helping to improve health outcomes and reduce preventable deaths by providing a large medication inventory thereby enabling users to access their medication when and where they need it.
Youth Startup of the Year
UltraTeb from Egypt 🇪🇬 is a fintech B2B e-commerce platform that helps solve Africa's healthcare challenges by connecting vendors directly with medical entities, eliminating intermediaries to enhance efficiency and reduce costs Their digital platform provides transparent pricing, innovative financing options, including Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) specifically designed for SME hospitals, and rigorous quality assurance, making medical supplies more accessible and affordable for healthcare providers across the continent.
Best Green TECH
Octavia Carbon from Kenya 🇰🇪 is Global Souths first DAC company that designs, builds, and will deploy geothermal-integrated DAC machines that filter CO2 from the atmosphere. They have designed our technology to overcome DAC's constraints by leveraging Kenya's renewable energy, geology, and talent. Their mission is to reverse the effects of climate change by deploying low-cost DAC in Kenya.
best finTECH
Chari from Morocco 🇲🇦, is a B2B Digital Bank with embedded e-commerce for traditional proximity stores in French Speaking African countries. We allow them to order any consumer goods they sell & get delivered on the next day while benefiting from financial services like payments, credit, insurance.
best Mobility & logistics
Loop from South Africa 🇿🇦, is an innovative tech platform that bridges the gap between the formal and informal markets, catering to the needs of commuters in the emerging market. Accessible via WhatsApp, their platform eliminates the need for additional apps, addressing the preference and technological limitations of the target demographic.
investor OF THE YEAR
EdVentures from Egypt 🇪🇬 is a corporate venture capital specialized in serving the fields of Education, Culture, and Innovative Learning Solutions. EdVentures invests in startups and supports entrepreneurs by offering them a second-to-none environment that is powered by the long successful history of Nahdet Misr Publishing Group.
eCOSYSTEM HERO
Dr. Eng. Nabil Shalaby from Egypt 🇪🇬, is the founder and chairman of the Arab Entrepreneur House (ARENHO), and the Vice President of John Cracknell Bank for Entrepreneurship in England. Notably, he designed Egypt's first Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Interactive Map (EEEI) and launched the first global entrepreneurship ecosystem platform (GEEP), which currently hosts 1530 entrepreneurship support channels from 72 countries.
women in tech
Anna Ekeledo from Nigeria 🇳🇬, is the executive Director of AfriLabs - a network organisation of over 450 technology and innovation hubs spread across 225 cities, 53 African countries and the diaspora. She leads the AfriLabs community to achieve its vision of a thriving innovation economy in Africa and heads a pan-African team to develop initiatives and build multi-stakeholder partnerships that support African innovation hubs and other stakeholders in raising high potential entrepreneurs that stimulate economic growth and social development in Africa.
BEST ACCELERATOR/INCUBATOR
OceanHub Africa from South Africa 🇿🇦, supports, connects, and invests in Africas Ocean Impact Ecosystem, providing a rich environment to accelerate the development and adoption of new ocean-based and ocean-bound solutions. They offer high-tech, high-growth entrepreneurship support tailored to tech-savvy entrepreneurs, as well as grassroots-level capacity building programs for coastal communities.
BEST CO-WORKING SPACE
As a catalyst for start-ups and enterprises, Silikin Village from Democratic Republic of Congo 🇨🇩 , mission is centered on identifying talent and developing innovative products and services. Silikin Village is the epicentre of a dynamic ecosystem, offering an environment that encourages innovation, collaboration and cultural diversity.
FOUNDER OF THE YEAR
Bethelhem Dejene from Ethiopia 🇪🇹, is the CEO of Zafree Papers and a dynamic leader with a background in economics and a passion for environmental sustainability. Recognized by Seedstars with the DOEN Land Restoration Prize in 2019, Bethelhem is celebrated as a global and local influencer, actively contributing to climate resilience in Africa through the Resilient 40 network.
BEST NEWCOMER
Mytochondria from Zambia 🇿🇲, is a pioneering agritech startup revolutionizing agriculture through innovative Smart Soil Sensors. Our technology analyzes soil composition in real-time, providing farmers with actionable insights to optimize irrigation, nutrient management, and crop selection.
STARTUP OF THE YEAR
SeaH4 from South Africa 🇿🇦, has the objective to decarbonise the hard-to-abate segments of the transport sector, by producing biofuels and e-fuels, using farmed seaweed and green hydrogen as feedstock. Production of fuels along desert shores guarantees sustainable, low carbon operation of the combustion engine, with a decentralised ownership & supply of fuels, avoiding classic issues of commodities in price fluctuations and supply constraints.
GIIG future shaper
Medref from Uganda 🇺🇬, is dedicated to democratizing healthcare through innovative technology. By leveraging technology, they aim to level the playing field and improve healthcare delivery worldwide. Ugavax by Medref is a digital immunization system With AI powered Dashboards designed for sub-Saharan Africa. It offers offline mobile apps for tracking vaccinations, reducing dropout rates, and ensuring every child receives timely doses.
The winners of the Global Startup Awards Africa earn the prestigious opportunity to participate in the global-level competition of the Global Startup Awards. In this international arena, they will go head-to-head with the foremost innovators from all corners of the globe.
the venue
Situated between the Two Oceans Aquarium and the One & Only Hotel, this inspiring venue looks out over the V&A Waterfront Marina, and from here, you can look directly into the Aquarium’s 1.7 million litre ocean exhibit why enjoying the celebrations.
A memorable and fitting venue for this prestigious event.