Startups Profile

Ensibuuko was founded in 2014 out of the desire to address a real problem that affects millions of people across Africa: the problem of poor banking infrastructure. Most banks are concentrated in urban centers and struggle to reach remote, rural communities. Partially regulated microfinance organizations and savings groups (owned and operated by the communities themselves) […]

Founded in 2016, ScholarX is a social impact startup that focuses on Educational Financing.  They are committed to helping young Africans access quality education and skills through Scholarships, Crowdfunding (Village), and E-Learning. By linking young people with financial aid both domestically and overseas, they are closing the funding gap for education. The ScholarX app allows

The Zambian woman-led business WidEnergy Africa was established in September 2016 by Liliane Munezero Chabuka, Agnes Imasiku, and BiziSol which is a Sweden-based social for-profit enterprise that empowers African women in clean energy.  The energy startup provides a last-mile distribution of clean energy solutions.  WidEnergy has displayed growth with the Paygo model, which is the

Kezakoo is an E-learning platform specializing in educational videos for high school students founded in 2013.  With their expertise in creating e-learning content (more than 2,500 videos), Kezakoo has positioned itself as a major player in education in Morocco in the digital age, with an audience that today reaches more than 2.5 million young Moroccans

Founded in 2018 by Dane and Bastiat Viljoen, Troygold digitizes gold bullion and Krugerrands and then allows customers to buy, sell, spend, and borrow against their gold.  Vaulted gold bars or coins with serial numbers are digitized via Troygold’s system, offering whole or fractional ownership.  Gold is directly allocated, and customers receive an ownership certificate

Sendmarc startup was launched by CEO Sam Hutchinson, Keith Thompson, and Sacha Matulovich in 2020 off the back of selling their former startup: a communication platform that allowed businesses to send, deliver, and track email and SMS communications.  With Sendmarc, they sought to solve email impersonation issues their former clients faced, thereby making the internet

Founded in 2012, HyperionDev is an online course platform for computer science education, which allows anyone to take online courses in coding with a personal computer or mobile phone. HyperionDev is southern Africa’s largest tech education provider. It was founded as a small grassroots movement of Computer Science students working towards a single goal: to

Yuppiechef was founded in 2006 by two good friends, selling just 32 kitchen products online, from a lounge in Plumstead. More than a decade (and more than a million cards and fridge magnets) later, nearly 275 of us are now working together to help our customers find more moments of joy in their homes. The

Meat Naturally was originally founded with the intent to address environmental degradation in South Africa.  The nation’s rangelands are being devastated by the spread of non-edible invasive plants, poor grazing management, and disruption of the predator-prey balance from the killing of predators. They recognized that ecological restoration and rural economic development were not exclusive to

Founded in 2016 by Alexandre Allegue, Majd Chaaya, and Nick Sparks, Pawame allows customers to access solar home systems via a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) subscription model and also helps them to obtain micro-loans via their mobile phones. The startup offers a portfolio of innovative, high-quality solar home systems in remote areas of Kenya on a micro-financed