Harry Hare, executive director, DEMO Africa (right)
DEMO Africa has announced the 40 finalists set to launch their startups at this year’s event in Lagos, with Nigerian entrepreneurs dominating the list of finalists.
HumanIPO reported in March applications opened for the competition, with the selected finalists to pitch their startups live at the conference to an audience comprising VCs, investors, tech acquisition specialists, IT buyers and media from around the world.
Applicants were invited to submit startups falling into 14 categories, namely Agriculture, Health, Education, Manufacturing, Retail, Media and Entertainment, Communication, Transport and Logistics, Energy, Finance and Banking, Water and Sanitation, Waste Management and Recycling.
DEMO today announced the judges have selected 40 startups from over 400 applicants, with the finalists to pitch their ideas at the conference which will be held between September 22 and 26.
Nigerian entrepreneurs dominate the final 40, with 14 of the selected finalists hailing from the country.
Financial management solution for companies CONNECT FINANCE, home design tool and online shop Cribpark, mobile phone-based card payment solution Cube, consumer feedback app Feedbackplus, online grocery marketplace Foodstantly, real estate information portal Hutbay, health insurance verification system InstaCare, hospital management system Integrated Medics, offline mobile card payment solution IroFit, smart device and service provider Nerve, cloud based microfinance banking system Oradian, local educational content provider Prepclass, African e-commerce platform SpacePointe, and proprietry apps for smartphone operating systems provider SpellAfrica Initiative, all represent Nigeria.
Kenyan finalists rank second in number with five finalists selected, namely real-time business intelligence tool ASiM, mobile interoperability tool Chura, agribusiness solution SokoNekt, digital archive of African children’s stories The Pearl Dream Inc, and African financial market simulator Valuraha Trader.
African Bitcoin remittance service Kitiwa, online teaching platform MyeCompus.net, payroll solution Paysail and mobile survey platform VOTO Mobile represent Ghana.
Egyptian startups LocName – a unique location identifier platform -, ridesharing platform PieRide, service-provider oriented software solutions company Telecosys, real-time road traffic information service TrafficBytes, also made the final 40.
Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and South Africa will each have two representatives – job alert service MobileJobs (mjobs) powered by SOMTEC and cloud based SME accounting solution Online Hisab from Ethiopia; digital content provider Jifunza and remittance platform Mergims from Rwanda; “blue-collar” job matching platform Nikweli and renewable energy technology company Shamba Technologies from Tanzania; merchant mobile credit card acceptance solution SmartPesa and website building tool VIGO from South Africa.
Benin is represented by online music platform Pliby, Cameroon by virtual assistant for feature phones MuZik, Tunisia by product chemical composition app What’sIN, Uganda by early non-invasive malaria diagnostic hardware Matibabu, and Zimbabwe by free public WiFi access provider SaiSai.
