Startups Profile

Founded in 2017 by Simon Schwall (a French national) and Shehzad Lokhandwall (an Indian national), OKO develops affordable mobile-based crop insurance products to provide smallholder farmers with the financial security they need, regardless of unstable climate trends.  The startup operates in Mali and Uganda and has so far brought insurance to more than 15,000 farmers. […]

Akili Network launched Akili Kids, Kenya’s first and only free-to-air TV station with educational entertainment for children and families.  Today, Akili Kids is the number one most-watched TV channel in Kenya in households with kids under the age of 18, with a weekly viewership of over 6.7 million children and 4.8 million grownups watching along

Trove builds technology that allows brands to take control of their resale marketplaces, deepening customer loyalty and generating new profits.  The company provides white-label technology and end-to-end operations that power circular shopping for premium brands such as lululemon, Patagonia, REI, Nordstrom, Levi’s, Eileen Fisher, and Arc’teryx.  Trove enables brands to take back items from customers’

Vendease was founded in 2019 by Tunde Kara, Olumide Fayankin, Gatumi Aliyu, and Wale Oyepeju to connect food businesses with suppliers. The idea for Vendease came when the founders, who have been friends for more than five years, noticed their favorite restaurants in cities like Lagos and Accra shutting down.  Inquisitive, they asked the owners

Shyft Power Solutions, formerly known as Solstice Energy Solutions, was founded at Stanford University as a byproduct of the research of the co-founders.  Their journey began as a means to drive solar and battery adoption and enable widespread access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy.  They build technology that will enable the transition to a

Built by the team behind the taxi app ZayRide, ArifPay was established as a business in February 2021 and launched operations in April of the same year once it received its license from the National Bank of Ethiopia – the first one for a fintech startup in the country. The startup has developed an MPOS

AlumUnite leverages a collaborative effort between alumni across the world, their alma mater, and corporations to crowdfund and crowd-manage projects to create a sustainable impact in education. AlumUnite is a purpose-built cloud-based alumni platform that connects all educated Africans through their alumni groups (secondary school) onwards.  Their goal is to create a safe, secure space

Prospa was founded by Frederik Obasi, Chioma Ugo, and Rodney Jackson-Cole.  As a serial entrepreneur running businesses in tech and media, Obasi experienced how tough running operations and banking his business simultaneously was in Nigeria. Banks only concerned themselves with providing some financial services so people like Obasi had to look for software or personnel

Afriwise was launched at the end of 2018 to address the poor availability of up-to-date and quality legal information across Africa. Existing solutions were failing to meet needs and expectations, with providers not focused on Africa and information often patchy, inconsistent, and not properly maintained. While even basic legislation can be difficult to find, there

Semicolon Africa was founded in 2019 by Sam Immanuel; a software engineer, passionate about people and economic development.  The mission of Semicolon is to develop a generation of software engineering talent that will solve problems and create economic opportunities by addressing tech-skill gaps, nurturing talent, fostering innovation, and building a thriving tech ecosystem. The enterprise