You’ll be amazed at how quickly African startups solve a huge number of problems to move their countries to a better life — IT is developing in Africa rapidly and in 2018 146 start-ups from 19 countries raised approximately $1,16 billion already. That’s massive!
We’ve decided to tell you about the companies that have been gaining more and more attention lately and who definitely don’t need to buy Instagram likes for their posts to find their audience: these projects are much-needed and help with solving serious problems of the continent.
Let us start with electrification: Zola is an off grid company based in Tanzania, it operates in the solar energy sector and develops innovative environmental technologies in poor rural areas.
This company is installing cheap solar panels on rooftops to generate energy in rural Africa, to prevent these regions from deforestation, kerosene lamps and other poor resources of energy.
Since 2012 Zola has attracted more than $58 million from huge international investors such as Solar City or the United States Agency for International Development.
Next on the list is agriculture: Agrix Technology based in Cameroon was founded in August 2018. They are trying to help local farmers to combat pests and plant diseases from their sources.
The technology that they have developed helps identify plant diseases and offers both chemical and physical treatments and preventive measures.
This program can help people who speak different African languages — creators took that in consideration and added a voice assistant that recognizes all languages and dialects.
Moving forward to food: WaystoCap from Morocco allows African businesses to buy and sell products, from obtaining insurance for business to securing their payments.
They take care of the small businesses and help them to trade locally and internationally, safely and with no loss for their deals. It is the second African startup to be selected to join Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator.
Last but not least: finances. Piggy bank or Piggy vest is a financial service that helps Nigerians curb their spending habits by improving their saving culture by automatic deposits of different frequencies to achieve a specific savings goal.
Where the level of financial education is extra low, this program helps people learn how to manage their finances rationally and even how to invest.
