In this digital revolution that is sweeping the world, Africa is no longer a mere consumer. With its fertile creativity, its awareness of today’s challenges, and its genuine political will, Africa is making inroads. With the support of the world's leading financial institutions, the outlook is bright.
“What's great about these digitally connected youth is they quickly grasp ideas that aren't just innovative in the context of their country or their region or their content. But they're coming up with ideas that can actually provide services to the world.” These words from William Sonneborn, the Global Director of Disruptive Technology and Creative Industries and Funds at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), say a lot about Africa’s new face in the digital space.
He sees the Tunisian start-up InstaDeep as a perfect example of this. Founded by two Tunisian entrepreneurs, Karim Beguir and Zohra Selim, with just two computers and 5,000 Tunisian dinars ($2,000), this artificial intelligence company has developed a series of algorithms to analyze data and improve decision-making, enabling Pfizer and BioNtech to speed up the development of the COVID vaccine. This shows that the continent's technology is becoming a global, not just a local, service.
"The aim is to mobilize other investors to crowd them in to invest in African tech companies”
For the second year, the Africa Tech Awards, co-organized by Vivatech and the IFC, will recognize African innovation. For William Sonneborn, the challenge is to attract other investors and encourage them to put money into African tech companies.
In fact, the Africa tech entrepreneurship economy is very fast growing, but it's been historically concentrated in four key markets: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt. “So, it's unbalanced. And even within those four markets, it's been concentrated in fintech. About 40 % of the activity in funding and success stories coming in fintech. So, our job is to even out those success stories into other parts of the continent, which is how we build ecosystems. We did it originally by working in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. Now we're doing it in places like Tunisia, Ethiopia, Morocco and Ghana, really to try to create this entrepreneurship opportunity for jobs. Really, it’s about jobs given the youth who are so numerous in Africa. And with jobs you get in hopes, “ he said.
For him, meeting the funding challenge is all the more important because “when you think about Africa on a per capita basis, it's one 50th of the penetration of venture capital in France. We need to level off the playing field.” To achieve this, William Sonneborn believes that the IFC must invest and crowd in the private sector participants to invest alongside it in order to scale these businesses.” That is a “big part of it. It's regulatory policy, it's building the ecosystem, doing it with the gender focus in terms of balance, and providing capital advisory support and guidance to our global network to give these companies a better chance to succeed.”
Awards to encourage creativity
Although there are many innovative initiatives, there is still a long way to go and start-ups have a role to play. That is why it is important to stimulate and encourage creativity. That's what the Africa Tech Awards are all about. “Our premiere edition was held last year, with the launch, in partnership with Vivatech, of the Africa Tech Awards, focused on three categories fintech, climate tech, and healthtech. The idea is to showcase really good African startups to the world in a room filled with investors, venture capital investors from around the world looking for innovative ideas and startups. We use the publicity around the awards to elevate the winners on a global stage. And we continue to grow and it is our second year now, which we grew. We grew the nominations for the awards by 30 % from first edition to second edition. And What's amazing is the quality of entrance is extraordinary!”
And the 2023 winners were :
In the "Climate Tech" category: Kubik, a Kenyan startup that transforms hard-to-recycle plastic waste into low-cost, sustainable building materials. Its aim is to "remove millions of tons of plastic from the environment by transforming it into the low-carbon buildings of the future. Their buildings are more sustainable and affordable than the old way of building - and they pollute less. From schools to clinics, homes to warehouses, Kubik brings environmental dignity to the way countries develop and urbanize.”
In the "Health Tech” category: Waspito based in Douala, Cameroon, which offers instant video consultations with doctors, mobile laboratories and pharmacy services, all linked by a social health network. " We are the platform that engages Africa into the conversation and action to drive affordable and accessible quality healthcare across the continent," the startup defines itself on its website.
In the “FinTech” category: Curacel, a Nigerian insurance technology company that provides easy-to-use technology solutions to help insurers distribute their products, automate claims, processes and drive insurance inclusion across Africa. The offers are even available on the dedicated app.
“When people look at how fast Africa innovated and mobile money and fintech solutions relative to any other part of the world, that is amazing,” enthuses William Sonneborn. The interesting thing is if you come up with an interesting innovation in Africa, given the structural challenges, that innovation is exceptional and it can easily be rolled out in the world. So, what I'm really excited about over the next 5 to 10 years is not only coming up with innovation for Africa, but Africa coming up for innovation for the world and becoming an exporter not just of precious minerals and metals and oil. But an exporter of ideas and technology. “
Find out more :
https://challenges.vivatechnology.com/en/challenges/africatech-awards
https://www.ifc.org/en/home