Nine start-up firms from a total of ten African countries emerged winners of the best tech awards at the recently held AfricArena summit which took place in South Africa.
At the climax of the summit, nine winners out of over 40 pitching start-ups were recognized among Africa’s best tech start-ups in their respective categories.
These are therefore the AfricArena Grand Summit winners who went home with prizes
- Best AI & Deep Tech Startup Award: OkHi (Roger Norton, Chief Product Officer, Nigeria)
- Best Agri Tech Startup Award: Djoli (Thomas Giannetti-Fakhoury, Co-Founder & CEO, Ivory Coast)
- Best Fintech Startup Award: Joro Cash (Malik Qadiri, Co-Founder & CEO, Morocco)
- Best Climate Tech Startup Award: Gjenge Makers (Nzambi Matee, Founder, Kenya)
- Best SaaS Startup Award: Cynoia (Manar Labidi, Chief Financial Officer, Tunisia)
- Best Seed Startup Award: Letsoela Agro-Aviation (Lemohang Isaaka Letsoela, founder and Managing Director, Lesotho)
- Best Startupper Award: Anda (Sergio Tati, Co-Founder & CEO, Angola)
- Most Value Add Investor Award: Knife Capital (Ayanda Bolani, Investment Associate, Knife Capital)
- Most Promising Entrepreneur: Solimi (Gaël Egbidi, Co-Founder & CEO, Togo)
The winners each won USD 25,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Activate credits.
The two-day AfricArena Grand Summit in South Africa and described to be a veritable celebration of the deep treasures, richness and dazzling innovative solutions emerging out of Africa’s trailblazing tech.
It was some sort of innovation and investment landscape at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The summit was held in partnership with TotalEnergies, Amazon Web Services Startups, Technology Innovation Agency, GIZ SAIS, ESquared Investments, Wesgro and The City of Cape Town.
Natasha Ngundu hosted the event as Master of Ceremonies and gave the event wonderful storytelling flair throughout the summit while Phindile Dlamini brought a dynamic vibe to the awards ceremony.
Alderman James Voss, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth in the City of Cape Town expressed his delight at being present at the event, describing Cape Town as South Africa’s leading tech ecosystem and he highlighted the importance of ensuring innovation and investment opportunities meet through catalytic partnerships that promote unique African designed solutions geared at solving world problems.
Over 100 startups from 31 African countries, including the TotalEnergies Startupper Challenge winners attended the summit and 45 startups pitched on AfricArena’s stage.
In his address, Viarnaud acknowledged that the last two years have been tough for both founders and investors navigating the funding winter while they focus on solving complex problems.
He reminded investors, startups and ecosystem builders in the room that a downturn in the economy is a good time to invest, especially when it comes to investing in the African tech asset class. “Now is the time to invest, Africa is not waiting for the future, we are shaping it.”
Viarnaud recalled how when he first started AfricArena in 2017, about USD 300 million in funds was trickling into the African continent. This amount, he noted, has this year hit over USD 2 billion in venture capital funding.
His message to founders, investors, ecosystem organizations and government is that we must “believe we will prevail as an African tech ecosystem for if we believe we can build better, aim higher, think big and don’t go home, the investors will follow us because if we are long on this asset class, this asset class will ultimately lead.”
Christophe Viarnaud, AfricArena founder and CEO; Zipho Zwane, Technology Innovation Agency Portfolio Portfolio Manager: International Partnerships; Philip Tettenborn, GIZ SAIS Head of Action Area: Investor Relations; Yann Vaudin, Katapult Africa Investment Associate; Cédric Tzeuton, AWS Startups and Venture Capital Analyst; Ross Davie, AWS Business Development Director at Silicon Overdrive; Gladwyn Leew, Esquared Investments CEO and Aliou Diallo, AfricArena Startup Sourcing Analyst handed out the awards to the winners.
Roger Norton, Chief Product Officer at OkHi was thrilled with winning the Best AI & Deep Tech Startup Award in Africa.
“We do address verification in an unsexy, regulated environment and winning the top Artificial Intelligence startup award is great validation that you can apply cutting edge technology in typically slow-moving sectors,” he said.
Particularly to help accelerate digital transformation and enabling economic agency for even the most disadvantaged communities.”
Thrilled about her win, an overwhelmed Solimi co-founder and CEO Gaël Egbid said, “I feel very proud and happy because this is huge for me, for my country and for my company.
“It means they will recognize the innovation coming from Togo here in South Africa because here in the AfricArena competition we have a lot of amazing startups. Being recognized as the most promising entrepreneur means a lot to me. I want to say thank you to AfricArena, to my country and to my company.”
Stunned at winning the best investor pitch, Ayanda Bolani, an Investor Associate at Knife Capital accepted the Most Value Add Investor award on behalf of Knife Capital, saying it was a very beautiful moment of recognition.
Keet van Zyl, co-founder and partner at Knife Capital, shared the significance of winning the Most Value Add Investor Award, highlighting Knife’s commitment to support their portfolio companies beyond just providing capital.
He emphasized that focusing on not only funding but also providing companies with networks helps to add strategic value and validates Knife Capital’s approach to attract quality companies seeking investors who contribute more than just funding.
Van Zyl also noted the pride in having team members represent the firm, reflecting its growth and evolution. Knife Capital continues to play a key role in Africa’s tech and investment landscape, including the USD 50 million African Series B expansion fund, Knife Fund III, aimed at bridging funding gaps for scalable South African B2B tech companies.
Recognitions like this award reinforce its leadership in supporting innovation-driven businesses across the continent.
About AfricArena
Launched in 2017, AfricArena has established itself as a leading platform dedicated to creating market access and fostering investment opportunities for a growing community of tech founders, angel investors, corporate innovators, and venture capitalists.
Designed with a digital-first mindset, AfricArena operates through a series of high-impact investment deal flow events, tailored interventions, and an open-source platform that champions the principles of open innovation and entrepreneurship.
In just eight years, AfricArena has earned significant credibility within the global tech startup ecosystem, with alumni startups collectively raising over USD 850 million in funding.
Its flagship events, known for blending thought leadership and action-driven networking, are structured into three dynamic segments: