Denis Opudo
The West Africa Tour leg of DEMO Africa successfully came to an end and weetracker officially announced these winners. Three startups with full potential got a chance to represent Ivory Coast in the second round of the challenge. The event took place at Ovillage through a partnership of DEMO Africa with Adei Institute of Technology. Winners of the West Africa Tour were WeFlyAgri, EtuDesk and Maurice Communication Marketing. The three emerged the winners after stiff competition from other startups in the pitching session.
Maurice Communication Marketing pitched what was referred to as pass santes mousso. This is a jewelry-like gizmo that has links to allow a site that assists patients to partake their medical records. It serves as an emergency tool of response that avails the data to the emergency personnel or attending medical.
EtuDesk is an e-learning web app that aims at improves the academic sector. It helps companies, organizations and educational institutions to put up their online learning programs at lower costs and conveniently. An agritech solution startup WeFlyAgri gives farmers the ability to have ownership over their pieces of land. It allows the farmers to manage and oversee them despite their location remotely.
The competition brought together a total of 12 startups that aimed at convincing the judges about their ideas. The panel of judges was made up of Axelle Kadio-Morokro, Donald Djobo, Yaya Bamba, Melei Anikpo, and Professor Christian Tidou. The judges had the role of observing, advising and awarding scores to the teams basing on their products. The judges took the role fully without being bias. The other nine startups that showcased their products were YOB Technologies, Bahrocel, Traductions, Myrhann, Asher Services, Akil Technologies, Damansah, JANDA SARL, Kalejob, and ZenApi.
Addressing the attendants during the event, Harry Hare of DEMO Africa said that the platform works behind the clock to have startups that are in a position to develop and improve the African tech ecosystem. He added that Ivory Coast had had significant innovation and the DEMO Africa is happy to play a role in the huge revolution in the country. Odomitchi Anikpo from ADEI Institute of Technology said that entrepreneurs in Ivory Coast have little opportunities to be incorporated in such international competition that is highly visible. According to him, the ADEI Institute of Technology is on a mission to narrow the gap between the country’s tech community and the international ecosystem. According to Anikpo, there was a good reception of the DEMO Africa City Innovation Tour in the country by the local tech entrepreneurs.
The three winners will compete with their counterparts from Ghana and Nigeria during the environmental challenge. The winner amongst of the region will get a direct ticket to represent West Africa at the launch of the event on 18th and 19th October 2018 in Morocco. The winners of the regional competition will have automatic qualification for the round of thirty. The startups will get access to resources valued at over $150K. They will also get $120K software resources from Microsoft and AWS will give them tools worth $15K to help them grow their ventures. DEMO Africa is one of the initiatives put in place by Lions@frica that aims at linking Africa’s startups to the global ecosystem.
