5 African start-ups receive innovation grants during Microsoft 4Afrika

Africtv - Mail Summary....

• The Microsoft 4Afrika is an initiative aimed at providing support and funding for start-ups in Africa.
• Africa is a hub of innovative thinkers and budding technology start-ups, using their expertise to solve the many issues faced on the continent.

Africtv - Mail News... Report

 Microsoft 4Afrika is an initiative aimed at providing support and funding for start-ups in Africa, with the intention of improving global competitiveness and success. 

It was announced on Monday that five such start-ups have been selected for innovation grants based on the scalability and uniqueness of their solutions, business models and the relevance of the problems they are addressing.

“As part of the 4Afrika initiative, we are excited to be supporting start-ups that have developed innovative solutions that address key issues in Africa,” Amrote Abdella, director of start-up engagement and Partnerships for 4Afrika said in a press release. “Our support is aimed to showcase the importance of local innovation, but, more important, it highlights the great potential that African innovators have in competing with world-class developers and entrepreneurs.”

The five start-ups to receive funding are:

access.mobile LLC (Uganda) a mobile solution customised to address a wide range of enterprise and social needs in Africa with a focus on agriculture and healthcare industries. Giving the companies the ability to collect, analyse and share real-time information about the on goings of their operations.

Africa 118 (Kenya) a mobile directory service that is focused on delivering the most relevant and accurate information to its subscribers, helping them find the services and people they need.

Gamsole (Nigeria) a mobile game production company that focuses on creating fun to play games for Windows phones.
In just 11 weeks, their collection of games was played by more than a million gamers worldwide.

Kytabu (Kenya) a textbook subscription application for low-cost tablets that allows students to rent textbooks for a selected period, reducing the cost of physically buying the book by up to 60%.

Save & Buy (Nigeria) a virtual savings payment platform that provides customers with a way to save towards the products they want from online merchants. A smart debt-free way to plan and pay for their purchases.

“A critical success factor in driving the economic success of entrepreneurs in Africa is access to capital together with a solid incubation foundation. Microsoft 4Afrika is partnering with local organizations in creating opportunities for ‘smart capital’ to be available to our young innovators,” said Fernando de Sousa, general manager for Microsoft 4Afrika. “Smart capital combines access to finance, technical skills development, business mentoring, sharing of global best practices and access to markets with the infrastructure provided by local partners to enable world-class companies to emerge from Africa.”

Aside from the grants, Microsoft will also provide access to the company’s expertise, data platform solutions, unified communications, optimised desktops and enterprise project management as well as provide technical support and training to aid the young companies in developing their businesses.

Share: