5 startup companies emerged the winners of the 5th edition of DEMO Africa, concluded last Friday August 26, 2016, and will benefit from the DEMO Africa LIONS programme.
The eventheld for two days and took place at the Sandton Convention Center, Johannesburg. South Africa.
More than 600 delegates were in attendance of the defacto launch pad for African technology startups, over 30 speakers in 12 sessions, and four master classes handled by the World Bank and the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).
Announcing the winners, Stephen Ozoigbo, the CEO of the African Technology Foundation, the agency responsible for the LIONS AFRICA initiative said companies that have been chosen have a global outlook, and can benefit by seeing similar companies are doing in the United States.
In his statement:
“These companies have a global appeal and have the highest potential to becoming global companies,” said Ozoigbo. “By participating in the innovation tour, we are helping to connecting these companies to the global innovation ecosystem and also continue connecting them to potential investors,”
The DEMO Africa LIONS programme is a partnership between DEMO Africa and the LIONS@FRICA initiative that curates a 2-week Innovation Tour of Silicon Valley. The Innovation Tour exposes the startups to the technology and investment ecosystem in the Silicon Valley with the aim of creating bridges and attracting investments from investors from the Valley.
The companies that made it into the program include:
Sortd
The product suite is aimed at helping people escalate conversations into action right from the source. Sortd works seamlessly with Email, IM, Skype and Slack. Sortd plays into an emerging category in the SAAS collaboration space with a vision to create an all-in-one Communication & Teamwork Platform for “the rest of us” (aimed at small-medium size businesses).
ConnectMed
ConnectMed is an online machine learning-enabled telehealth platform that allows patients to seek treatment from GPs over video for common ailments, either directly through app (ConnectMed Prime) or indirectly through clinic partners (ConnectMed Care). ConnectMed Prime targets middle and upper income South Africans who have easy access to internet-enabled devices and use the private healthcare system.
Strauss Energy
Strauss Energy sells electricity to homeowners and organizations at 75% cheaper than the national grid. The power is generated from the innovative BIPV Stima 2 in1 solar roofing tiles that they manufacture. 2 Million Houses are required annually according to a UN Habitat report. In Kenya only 150,000 houses are built annually. Strauss targets 30% of this market and is already working on 1,000 houses in Kenya and an additional 10,000 houses next year.
Solstice Home Energy Solutions
Solstice has developed a low cost energy monitoring solution for Nigerian households that gives insight into energy consumption patterns by measuring both utility grid and generator usage. The data the hardware provides can be used by homeowners to track energy usage, set budgets, and get energy saving tips through our mobile application.
MediaBox
MediaBox is gateway to content in the home. They can make any existing TV old or new a truly smart device for entertainment, education & access to the internet. MediaBox is the only aggregation platform in Africa that works with any and all current providers of content, such as DSTV, ShowMax, Netflix and Supersport.
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