Finalists Announcement : Tech Africa Women Initiative

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The call for African women with idea stage startup ideas to participate in the series of ECA-BetaCube initiative’s Bootcamp and pitch competition concluded successfully in September 2022. The Bootcamp engaged a total of 74 women participants selected out of 338 applicants, 12 finalists, and 8 projects from the four targeted countries i.e. Tunisia, Senegal, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, all selected by a local jury panel.  The outcome of the competition showed that African women are beyond ready to tackle the socio-economic issues of the continent with tech ideas encircling strategic areas such as optimization of agriculture outputs and enhancing health education.

The first stage of the Tech African Women (TAW) initiative focused on 3 days of tailored workshops with key skills introduction to inspire the entrepreneurs and prepare them for the pitching competition. The Bootcamp mainly included training on market analysis, team building, lean startup methodology, and project pitching with relevance to UN Sustainable Development Goals as the final project selection criteria along with market size potential, the extent of innovation, and scalability of the idea. The first and second place best start-up ideas of each of the pitching competitions hosted on the third day of each city boot camp won a ticket to get access to a 2-month equity free incubation program and a fully funded trip to Addis Ababa for the final ceremony.

The second stage of the program, which is the incubation phase, will be focusing on leading the startups to the investment-readiness level with a fully functioning MVP. The founders will have the support of experts in Market research, Product Management, Branding, Pitching, and Finance. At the end of the incubation program, the 8 startups will get to showcase and pitch the projects to which they're dedicating their time and effort. This event will be taking place at ECA Conference Center in Addis Ababa where National investors, partners, and key players in the Ethiopian ecosystem will be mobilized for this demo day.

TAW as one of the ECA initiatives prioritizing focus on digital technologies in a holistic manner that encompasses social and economic benefits of greater equality, and consistent efforts in narrowing digital skills gap, has achieved a massive step in breaking down barriers towards empowering girls and young women to pursue STEAM in the year 2022.The ECA is hereby honored to congratulate all the TAW participants to have joined in the competition and advanced their founding skills with special gratitude to the best performers of each country.

The Finalists

Tunisia                     

• 1st place: Govinda: An application dedicated to the breeders of cows to optimize the quality of milk and Beef through improving the nutrition and health status of cows.
• 2nd place: Apple of my Eye: A platform capable of grouping all data related to mothers and children and offering recommendations based on web analysis & machine learning.

Senegal                    

• 1st place: Noppal Tech: An application linked to an air purifier made fully in Senegal
• 2nd place: Hydro Tech Services: An automatic system formed by several sensors that allow the tank to be filled remotely and to review the Physico-chemical parameters through a digital platform.

Tanzania                  

• 1st place: UJANA: An e-commerce platform for Sexual-Reproductive health supplies where youth can purchase products and receive SRH information without fear of judgment, stigma, and discrimination. 
• 2nd place: PlateAI Company: PlateAI leverages the power of AI to plan healthy food options that align with the health goals of individuals at risk of getting dietary ailments. as well as deliver them to their clients to their doorsteps affordably.

Ethiopia                   

• 1st place: TenaSeb – ጤና ሠብ: An application that provides education about (Sexual and Reproductive Health through consultations for women.          
• 2nd place: Makoyamoms: A platform that helps mothers easily get a caregiver at their disposal while offering young girls who just graduated a job.

For more information on TAW you can visit : www.TechAfricanWomen.com

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).