COVID-19 has taken a massive toll on the world and our global society today. In this time of uncertainty, start-ups play an important role by bringing fourth market innovative solutions that intercept the challenges and negative impacts caused by the pandemic. Start-up hotspots come from all regions of the globe with unique values and cultures that improve their ecosystems.
Africa is a continent with the least developed countries in the world. There are 33 countries that are classified as least developed countries in the continent, some including Zambia, Benin and Angola according to the United Nations.
The other 21 countries are perceived to be either developed or developing, these include Algeria, Botswana and South Africa.
Despite Africa having the least developed countries, It has countries whose start-ups are expected to boost the continent’s global growth overtime. Here we’ll look at five start-up hotspots which have the potential to go global and also find out what makes each one so amusing to today’s tech entrepreneurs.
These five countries – Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Egypt – have stepped up their game in terms of being innovation hotspots that attract entrepreneurs and start-ups which better the ecosystem of their nations. There are numerous start-ups engaged with each country, but in this particular article we’ll only take a look at technology start-ups.
Kenya
Kenya is one of the 21 countries in Africa that are perceived as developed or developing. The country has experienced a surge in the number of innovation start-ups sprouting, high growth of venture capital investments, and a lot of success stories making it among the top tech start-up destinations in Africa.
The country’s main start-ups mainly focused on the Health, Education, Construction, and Agriculture sectors but we’ll only look at the Health sector. The development of technology over the years has created various opportunities for countries and individuals to capitalize on. Kenya has used this development in tech to its advantage to create a start-up which will develop its ecosystem. Let’s begin with the Ilara Health start-up in the Health sector.
- Ilara Health (Health)
Ilara Health is a HealthTech start-up that provides low-cost artificial intelligence (AI) powered diagnostic devices to healthcare facilities in peri-urban and rural clinics. It provides tech-powered diagnostic equipment at affordable prices to healthcare facilities which then they pay for over a period of time.
This Medical sector start-up was founded in 2018 by Emilian Popa, Amaan Banwait and Hannes Eckmayr.
Ilara Health’s proprietary electronic medical record (EMR) systems record patient data and help doctors to provide effective patient management and also sends customized health tips and reminders to patients based on their condition.
This start-up is one to keep an eye on, besides being an effective start-up that will push ecosystem development, it has the potential to take off globally.
An advantage of Ilara Health includes fast access to tests that doctors need, results which took a period of 1-2 days to collect have now been shortened to just 10 minutes. Another advantage is that it’s cost effective compared to traditional lads, this makes it an ideal start-up for people in rural areas.
Nigeria
Just like Kenya, Nigeria is also one of the 21 countries in Africa that are perceived as developed or developing. Nigeria has several technological start-ups which are a factor to the development of its ecosystem, but in this article we’ll only look at its Education sector.
The first set of internet service providers in Nigeria were licensed in 1996. The techno system has further grown in leaps and bounds, so much so that the country has now produced a unicorn – Interswitch. The country’s start-ups in the educational sector are commendable, but in this article we’ll only look at it’s leading start-up which is Gradely.
- Gradely (Education)
Source: Gradely NG
Gradely is the number one eLearning platform for primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. This educational start-up offers personalized learning for children in both primary and secondary schools. This start-up empowers schools to quickly identify gaps in their students’ learning and supports parents to plug them before it’s too late.
This powerful educational tool was founded in 2019 and uses data analytics and algorithms to provide adaptive learning for students. Gradely’s adaptive learning makes it easy for teachers and parents to ensure that their ward does not have a learning gap in any subject.
With this massive educational start-up schools won’t have a need for test papers anymore. Schools that use Gradely will prepare it’s students for the digital world they will be graduating into. It will also encourage making apprehension for Computer Based Tests (CBT) a thing of the past.
With the use of Gradely, Parents can get real-time feedback on the performance of their children in school. They’ll get to find out how well their child is progressing with learning in school and with the curriculum.
Gradely also helps students make preparations for their exams, it gives them a performance guide which tells them where to focus on the upcoming exams. It also acts as a resource tool which helps students study better with practice sessions and interactive video lessons adapted to exactly where you are in class.
South Africa
Like the above-mentioned countries, South Africa is also one of the 21 countries in Africa that are perceived as developed or developing. In recent years, the country has become one of the most attractive markets and incubators for start-ups.
Economies across Africa are experiencing tremendous growth powered by technology and South Africa is leading the charge. South Africa represents one of the continent’s largest and most advanced technological industries, it’s by far the largest start-up hotspot in Africa. Although South Africa has several start-ups which play a role in the development of the country’s ecosystem, we’ll only be looking at its Agriculture sector starting with Aerobotics.
Source: Aeroboticsag
Aerobotics is a start-up to keep an eye on. This Cape Town based aerial data analytics platform provides analytics for drone users in the agricultural sector. Last year the start-up landed a R29-million investment from local venture capital (VC) company Paper Plane Ventures in its latest round of funding.
The start-up won two accolades last year, namely: the President Macron Africa Tech Award at VivaTech 2019 and the Best start-up and Venture Capital Company category at the 2019 Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.
Aerobotics provides an end-to-end solution to help manage your farms throughout each season, it can also provide you with tips to grow and maintain your farms. Besides that, it also provides information on how to manage your farm in order to keep weeds and insects away.
Tanzania
Unlike the above mentioned three countries, Tanzania is one of the 33 countries that are classified as the least developed countries in africa. Despite being one of these 33 countries, Tanzania is a start-up hotspot to keep an eye on.
With numerous start-ups in different sectors, Tanzania has the potential to blossom and develop its ecosystem which will in turn make it one of the 21 countries in Africa that are perceived as developed or developing. In this article we’ll look at a technological start-up making headlines in the Health sector of Tanzania which is Zanzibit.
Zanzibit
Zanzibit has developed an app that provides users with access to public health information, and helps users make appointments with doctors as well as locate the nearest medical centres and pharmacies.
This app has the potential to go global because of its many useful advantages. With health information at your fingertips, you won’t need to go to health facilities to know what you need to do and avoid in order to stay healthy.
This start-up also saves you time and money because you wouldn’t need to go to health facilities to make appointments, you can make appointments from the comforts of your home and don’t have to wait in ques.
In the event of an emergency while in a foreign town you’ll find this app to be very useful, in that you can use it to locate nearby health facilities without having to move a single muscle.
Egypt
Like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, Egypt is one of the 21 countries in Africa that are perceived as developed or developing. This huge start-up hotspot has technological start-ups which have proven to be effective in the development of its ecosystem.
Egypt’s main start-ups focus on the Health, Education, and E-commerce sectors, but in this article we’ll take a look at it’s entertainment sector with the Arabhardware start-up .
- Arabhardware
Arabhardware is a start-up in the Middle East presented in Arabic and specialized in the hardware, software, programming, operating systems, and certificates fields. They are one of the biggest technical groups in the middle east, and besides having a fully engaging website they also have a very useful youtube channel for every tech savvy out there,
The Arabhardware website provides fields in latest news and developments as well as the coverage of the important events plus discussions between the members of the site’s forum about each field in order to exchange experiences and public interest which contributes greatly in the development of culture and knowledge of the forum’s members in these fields.
This start is definitely one to keep an eye on in the entertainment sector.
By Yannick Cohen
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