Denis Opudo
RedBird, Develess, and Complete Farmer are the winners of the Demo Africa innovation tour of the Accra round. The three Ghanaian startups won the pitching competition after receiving stiff competition from six other startups at the event that took place last week in Accra on 6th June 2018. The event gave startups a chance to represent West Africa at the DEMO Africa launch event that will take place in October 2018 in Morocco.
The event in Accra was sponsored in collaboration with MEST Africa. The three winners will now compete with the winners of the Lagos round of the tour. The winners of the Lagos round were Termii, E-pump, and Accounteer. The competition will also involve other startups that will be shortlisted for a pitching event that will take place in Ivory Coast. The pitching event at Accra was presided over by a panel of jury. The jury included Kofi-Armah from Viamo, MTN Ghana’s Abdul-Latif Issahaku, and MEST Africa’s Philippe Greinacher.
RedBird is a health startup which was founded by Andrew Quao and Patrick Beattie in 2017. The company partnered with chemists and pharmacies to equip them with on-site quick test technology used in diagnosing acute conditions and chronic. CompleteFarm is an agritech firm that helps users to develop and manage farms on their comfort. The firm was co-founded by Andrew Yestrup who serves a the CEO, Desmond Koney, and COO Charles Doku Ofosuhene.
Devless allows developers to build the Internet of Things (IoT), web and mobile applications faster by using plug and play modules. Devless was founded by a group of individuals that include Julius Odai and Tsatsu Selormey. TIFAT, a Ugandan agritech, Kenyan Advanced IT solutions, Loyal1 and Gethhosted both from South Africa. There is also healthtec MolDiang from Morocco are the rest of startups that have so far qualified for regional finals. The winners from every region will get an automatic qualification to be part of a team of 30 startups that will pitch at the DEMO Africa Launchpad. The event will take place for two days on 18th and 19th October in Morocco. Shortlisted startups will receive resources valued at more than $150,000. They will also get tools from Amazon and Microsoft Web Services to help founders in developing their businesses. Applications are still ongoing, and they will be closing on 15th July.
Thanks to ITNewsAfrica
