Denis Opudo
2017 has been a year of startup revolution in South Africa but it doesn’t end in 2017. 2018 is expected to be a year of completion in the development of startups in various sectors be it agriculture, transport or finance. Ventureburn’s gives a list of twelve startups to watch come 2018.
It is no doubt startups to be watched with players in the same field. The startup which is based in Cape Town provides aerial data analytics platform for drone users. The startup was one of the 24 selected African startups to participate in the fifth class of the Launchpad Accelerator which will be hosted in San Francisco on 29th January 2018. That came after August when the startup got a joint $600, 000 funding from South African venture capital Company 4Di Capital and the Savannah Fund.
The startup received funding from Endeavor catalyst as well as a multi-million dollar deal from Rand Merchant Investment Holdings and Nedbank Private Equity. Entersekt won the award for the best Mobile Sector Technology for the second time in history at the 2017 Banker Africa Southern Africa Banking Awards. The company was founded in 2010 by four engineering students.
The company which is based in Cape Town South Africa is planning to try a door-to-door sharing service in the town come February 2018. The company is on the verge of launching an app that will increase its service by allowing customers to use any kind of transport system including ride sharing, taxis, cars, trains, and buses. By the end of 2017, the company will have developed its solution in Milton Keynes in the UK at the same time. It targets to raise 5 million pounds from the European investors. All this comes after it was accepted into the UK’s Intelligent Mobility Accelerator in October 2017.
The company became the first South African startup to be selected for Launchpad Accelerator an initiative ran by Google. The Company will graduate from the initiative on the ceremony to be held before 16th December 2017 in Warsaw Poland. Since the launch in January 2015 to April 2017 the company has drastically developed with employees from seven to 300, and it has opened its branches in Cape Town, Nairobi and Portugal. The company got an award of $150, 000 money from the Mastercard Foundation to show the customer satisfaction which was hosted in Accra Ghana.
The London based startup received a partnership with Apiax which is a Swiss-based startup in November 2017. The partnership was sealed at Swiss tech initiative Kickstart Accelerator that was held in 2017. On October 2017, it was announced that the company got $1million funding from investors that are aimed at expanding the company.
In 2017, Prosperiprop ran one of the first initial coin offerings alongside Newtown Partner’s Augmentors raise. It is located in Johannesburg and the firm managed to raise over $200, 000 from various investors by 30th November 2017. The money will be used to develop software’s that will be useful to financial institutions in their urge to join Blockchain.
It’s amongst the few South African startups that work in the health sector. The company secured a funding worth R4.5 million from HAVAIC which is an SA operating capital startup. Recomed was started in 2013, and it currently has 14 employees.
The startup makes it easy to allow people to purchase solar cells in the solar project through its blockchain technology. The company announced that it had received $1.6 million from Kalon Ventures Partners and many others.
The startups give a chance to local and foreign investors a chance to invest in global projects. The company is planning to operate initial coin offering (ICO) starting from January 2018. The company that was launched in 2010 now has 60 employees. The company has been in a position to facilitate different investment transactions amounting to $66 million and has worked with investors from 46 countries globally.
The company which operates a mobile QR scanner app reached one million downloads. The app makes payments easier by scanning a generated QR code. The company has been able to operate in 12 countries in four years.
Yoco was established in 2012 and currently, the CEO of the startup is Katlego Maphai. The company launched a free point sales solution and opened a store in Parkhurst.
