Denis Opudo
Last week we had various eye-catching events taking place in the East African and North Africa startup ecosystems. The two regions have got developing ecosystems. The regions are currently witnessing an encouraging fortune in their ecosystems. This is especially when it comes to the tapping of the profitable opportunities in their different domains. The move has so far brought in global exposure and opportunities to the African startups. We are basing on the last week since several events took place in those regions within that period. The events mostly aimed at offering entrepreneurs a platform to pitch their business ideas and get various opportunities. Most of the actions took place in Zimbabwe and Morocco. Below is the highlight of some of the notable events that took place in the regions in the last week.
DEMO Africa Innovation Tour
The event which took place in Casablanca the Moroccan capital aimed at offering a platform for competition of startups from selected cities across Africa. From the success stories from its previous editions that took place in Johannesburg, Kampala, Harare, and Nairobi, this was the best time for North Africa to have a test of the event. That is why the hosts decided to take it to Casablanca in Morocco. The DEMO Africa Innovation Tour took place on 4th July 2018 at Technopark. Moreover, it recorded the attendance of 13 startups from different North African countries. The startups got the opportunity to pitch in front of the local judges. Moldiag, an eHealth startup emerged the overall winner of the competition. But it received stiff competition from BIG4COM, Break, Interactive Rh, and Nuppio Learn. The main launch event of Demo Africa will take place in Morocco in October 2018. This will be the first time that the event will be taking place in the North Africa region. This comes after the event took place in Johannesburg, Lagos, and Nairobi.
Seedstars World’s Startups Competition
Seedstars World hosted its startup’s competition event in the Zimbabwean capital Harare. The event was hosted by Impact Hub Harare an online poultry farming startup. Rera emerged the overall winner of the competition. The startup now stands a chance to compete for an equity investment worth $1 million at Seedstars Summit. The Seedstars Summit will take place in Switzerland in 2019. Another startup to receive an award at the event at Harare was Justice Today and Vote Africa. The tow won the category of the best learner and best civic tech respectively.
Seedstars
Seedstars decided to get back to Casablanca the Moroccan capital to further work on its goal of pushing for the growth of budding businesses in the developing countries. The event saw Seedstars World Tour host its 6th edition since its launch. The event took place on 6th July 2018 at LaFactory, and it saw the attendance of eight startups from the North African country. Startups got an opportunity to pitch in front of judges to emulate Hooplacar which emerged the winner of the 5th edition. They also compete for a chance to represent the country at the 2019 Seedstars World Competition. Indatacore, Medtrucks, Popaddress, Tripblan SARL, UnitedCoin, Valenvi, Zelij Invent, and Weego were the startups that competed for the top award.
