Digital Lab Africa Announces 10 Winners of This Year’s Pitch Competition

TechInAfrica – Digital Lab Africa (DLA) has announced 10 winners of the current edition of DLA Accelerator Program. The competition was initiated by the Embassy of France and French Institute in South Africa (IFAS) and managed by South African tech hub, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, and supported by the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD).

DLA is an incubation platform provided for African creatives in the digital content. This year’s competition was opened to applicants from Sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, there were about 500 entries from more than 30 countries in Saharan Africa applied for the competition. Ten projects from Kenya, Mali, South Africa, Ghana, and Zimbabwe, were selected as the winners of the competition.

Each of the winners is given a cash prize of R 42,000 and a tailored-made incubation program for their project development. The program will include mentorship by French and Sub-Saharan creative industries experts, participation in a digital cluster/hub in France, and participation at industry events in France and/or in Sub-Saharan Africa region.

DLA also conducted public online voting for the DLA Audience Award. The winner of this award goes to Justus Macharia from Kenya for his work, BABA. He got 501 votes out of 3329 total votes. His prize includes an invitation to one of the DLA events in France or in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The 10 winning projects for the 2019 DLA Pitch competition are:

1. Animation: Ringa Mzansi by Lwazi Msipha (South Africa) and Uzi by Naddya Adhiambo Oluoch-Olunya (Kenya)
2. Web: Creation Cartographie Des Regions Musicales du Mali by Tiecoura N’Daou (Mali) and Re/member Your Descendants by Xabiso Vili (South Africa)
3. Digital Music: Swaggify by Marvin Madyara (Zimbabwe) and Sunkambe by Shaka Ramulifho (South Africa)
4. Virtual Reality: TRVLR by Komborerai Chapfika (Zimbabwe) and the Afrocyborg VR Film Collective by Shmerah Passchier & the Afrocyborg Collective (South Africa)
5. Video Game: Mancala Plus by Setriakor Nyomi (Ghana) and Precious Cargo by Simone Beneke-Graham, Shannon Bennetts, Rowan Brough & Niall Graham (South Africa).

Digital Lab Africa is an initiative project founded in 2016 by the French Institute and the French Embassy in South Africa, and managed by South African Innovation hub, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct since 2018. It is supported by the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), SACEM, Lagardere Studios, TRACE, DISCOP and other partners from French and Sub-Saharan Africa.