30 SA startups selected to attend AfricArena 2020
The French Embassy in South Africa, in partnership with FSAT Labs, has invited 30 startups from the Challenge of 1000 to showcase at this year's AfricArena Summit. Announced at the press conference presenting the 2020 Africa-France Summit held in Bordeaux on Tuesday 17 September 2019, the Challenge of 1000 is a joint initiative of Digital Africa and the Summit. The current circumstances did not allow the Africa-France Summit to take place, and therefore rendered these incredible entrepreneurs unable to showcase on a grand stage this year until now.
The French Embassy in South Africa has taken great strides to ensure that the talented South African startups are part of the Challenge of 1000 to gain visibility and connections that can be valuable to their growth. In partnership with the FSAT Labs and AfricArena, the Embassy has selected 30 startups.
“AfricArena represents a unique opportunity for the South African laureates to gain exposure to investors. The opportunity to prepare them for this exercise is made possible by this bootcamp set up by the FSATLABS. It is a real team effort at the service of the community of young innovative companies in South Africa. We are determined to invest ourselves to support the dynamism of these young entrepreneurs.”
The Startup Founders Boost Camp will run on 22 and 23 November at Workshop 17 at the V&A Waterfront and will feature world class speakers and coaches on content ranging from how to engage investors, speaking to users/customers, a legal workshop, how to build a great culture and team that can win and sales coaching for startups. On top of that, the event features fantastic marketing opportunity and will see 9 of the startups pitch on the main stage at AfricArena 2020.
“We are excited to host 30 laureates from the Digital Africa 1000 selection. With the support of the French Embassy in South Africa and AfricArena, we have been able to put together a world class program which includes topics such as investment, pitching and communications, sales for startups, engaging customers to get useful feedback and a legal workshop. This program coupled with fantastic networking opportunities is the perfect opportunity to give these startup founders the boost they need to take their startup to the next level.”
Theses are the startups that will be participating at this year's AfricArena Summit and the Founders Boost Camp programme that precedes it:
Boombadotmobi, Kudoti, Deaftouch, My Pregnancy Journey, Kweza Technologies, Biakudia urban farming solutions (BUFS), Kgopelang Medical Services, Ettaele-Roi, Money Savvy Kids, Desert Green Africa, Diepsloot Kasi Hive, Midesk Global, GrowBox Wholesale Nursery, FemConnect, Bnbsitter, Powertime, GEO Data Design, Jamii Life, UrbanSense app, Kgaisano fresh harvest, Nubian Smarts, Technovera, Growth South Africa, Vollar, Bahati Tech & Mellowcabs.