Fifteen start-ups from Southern Africa were announced as winners of this year’s Southern Africa Start-up Awards (SASA), at the launch edition of GITEX Africa 2023 recently held in Morocco.
GITEX Africa 2023 is a gathering of innovation stakeholders on the continent. The event brings together global leaders in the public, private and civil sectors to spur adoption of next-gen technology in Africa.
Every year, the best start-ups, influential individuals and top ecosystem players − such as investors, acceleration programmes and co-working spaces − are selected from seven regions around the world.
The 15 SASA winners came from SA, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
South African start-ups secured 11 titles at this year’s competition. This includes best newcomer (BAOM Eco Solutions); venture capitalist of the year (Digital Africa Ventures); best accelerator/incubator programme (WomHub); diversity role model of the year (NOOSi); ecosystem hero of the year (Innovation City); best health-tech start-up (LIQID Medical); best commerce-tech start-up (Floatpays); best mobility and logistics-tech start-up (Basket Ecommerce); best green-tech start-up (Mzansi Meat Co); best edtech start-up (FinMeUp); and best Web3.0 start-up (MoMint), according to a statement.
Zimbabwe followed with two awards for start-up of the year (Forestry & Citrus Research) and best co-working space (Tech Hub). Start-ups from Mozambique and Namibia walked away with awards for best agritech start-up (Sustainable Planet) and founder of the year (Lynkwise), respectively.
This year, there were 8 272 entries from all African countries, resulting in 189 finalists and 71 regional winners across Africa.
“Our panel of judges were blown away by the quality and diversity of solutions that are actively working to power, light, feed, industrialise, integrate and ultimately empower Africa,” says Global Start-up Awards (GSA) Africa and Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG) co-founder Jo Griffiths.
SASA is one of the five regional competitions within GSA Africa.
Regional winners will now advance to the continental finals of the GSA Africa competition, to compete with teams from the rest of Africa.
The winners will then join the GSA final, where they will have the opportunity to showcase their solutions alongside some of the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and ecosystem enablers from around the world.
In addition to being named a regional winner, these start-ups will have the exclusive opportunity to engage with the GIIG, the competition's dedicated investment partner, through its GIIG Africa Fund.
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