The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative and the Royal Academy of Engineering once again work together on the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2018. Two South African companies are amongst the final 16 shortlisted candidates.

Monday 3 December 2018, Cape Town – Pelebox Smart Lockers and the Hybrid Five-Axis Machine Tool are the two South African innovations that are on the shortlist for the Royal Academy for Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, accelerated by the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi).

CiTi is Africa’s oldest tech incubator, in its 20th year in 2019, and the Royal Academy of Engineering is the United Kingdom’s prestigious national academy for engineering and technology since 1976. Since 2017, the Royal Academy of Engineering has worked with CiTi to support engineering and tech entrepreneurs from across the continent in developing their unique scalable solutions to local challenges. After a highly successful first cohort together, the Royal Academy of Engineering once again selected CiTi as the primary programme incubation partner to support the 16 businesses from the following 6 African countries in 2018/19: Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso and South Africa.

The programme, designed by CiTi specifically for the Royal Academy of Engineering, uses a remote incubation model, delivering entrepreneurial training, coaching and mentorship over the 7-month programme period; coupled with three residency weeks which include workshops, networking events and local entrepreneurial engagement sessions. The first residency week took place in Cape Town at the Bandwidth Barn in early November, and the following two will take place in London and Kampala. The entrepreneurs also stand a chance to receive £25,000 (R450,000) at the end of the programme, and all will have direct access to both the Academy and CiTi’s vast network of engineers, tech professionals, businesses and industry leaders.

“We have found a dynamic synergy with the Royal Academy of Engineering, especially around our shared impact values,” states Ian Merrington, CEO of the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi), “Making a difference and improving lives through technology by accelerating African innovation and African entrepreneurs is an objective shared by both organisations. CiTi has relished the opportunity to design a pan-African incubation programme. We now find ourselves strongly positioned as an African partner to international organisations who want to deliver high-impact support for entrepreneurship on the continent through hybrid models of training and mentorship.”

On why the Royal Academy of Engineering selected Cape Town-based CiTi as its incubation partner, Meredith Ettridge, Senior Manager for International Development at RAE, states: “Earlier this year we undertook a competitive tender process with a number of strong applications, following careful review we were very pleased to appoint CiTi as the training provider for the 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, building on the success of the previous year. We were particularly pleased to award the contract to a training provider based in sub-Saharan Africa, and with such a strong history of support for entrepreneurs nationally and regionally.”

With Cape Town recently being named the leading Tech Hub of Africa, it should come as no surprise that two of the companies hail from SA.

“CiTi has a strong network of trainers and mentors in Cape Town so it was an easy decision to hold the first training session here. Cape Town also has a thriving technology ecosystem which was evident during the myriad of events happening as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week which allowed our shortlist to make excellent new connections,” adds Meredith Ettridge.

The Hybrid Five-Axis Machine Tool is the first of the South African innovations on the shortlist, developed by Dr Lukas du Plessis. Du Plessis’s hybrid machine tool works on five axes to allow users to shape, cut, grind, shear and otherwise form metals and hard materials with more precision.

“There’s so much manufacturing in South Africa that could be greatly improved if small and medium-sized businesses could afford machining tools like this – and my hope is to change that,” states Dr Lukas du Plessis, founder of the Hybrid Five-Axis Machine Tool.

He continues: “What I hope to gain from this experience is twofold: (i) A fundamental understanding of entrepreneurial business so that I can support entrepreneurs in South Africa to establish compact manufacturing firms that are competitive internationally. (ii) I also hope to find a partner who shares my manufacturing vision and passion for machine tools.”

The second South African innovation is the Pelebox Smart Locker system developed by Neo Hutiri.

Pelebox is a smart locker system designed for public healthcare facilities to dispense chronic medicine to regular patients, cutting down on long queues and easing pressure on clinic resources.

Developed by Hutiri and his team for the South African healthcare system, the Pelebox is a simple wall of lockers, controlled by a digital system in the centre. Healthcare workers stock the lockers with chronic prescription refills, log the medicine on the system, and secure each locker. Pelebox then sends patients a one-time PIN, which they simply enter into the system to unlock their medicine.

“The public healthcare system is so often under strain, and Pelebox can take a lot of pressure off clinics who fill repeat prescriptions for regular patients,” comments Neo Hutiri, founder of Pelebox Smart Lockers.

He adds: “To be considered amongst thousands of innovators and entrepreneurs that would have applied for this prize is a testament to the work that we are doing on the ground in leveraging technology to serve people. Our vision is to create and promote inclusive technologies solving challenging issues in health. We feel that we are well positioned to solve the issue of long queues in clinics through technology that is patient-centric and easy to use.”

Eleven startups from across the African continent, identified as “entrepreneurs for humanity”, were awarded the opportunity to partner with the AfricArena challenge corporate sponsors at the end of the second AfricArena technology conference in Cape Town today.

Saturday 17 November, Cape Town – Amongst others, Air France KLM selected DiscoverIkasi and Sea Monster, both from South Africa, to assist with improving the travel experience and sustainability of its subsidiary Joon. Vinci Energie, will work with Senegal’s Oniriq and South Africa’s DataProphet on innovative energy solutions in Africa.

See the full list of winners, sponsors and challenges below.

During 2018, in the run up to AfricArena2018, 60 startups pitched their businesses in regional events in eight cities across Africa. Many of which were invited to take part in a series of challenges set by the AfricArena sponsors, all looking to solve uniquely African business problems.  

SOLUTIONS FOR THE AFRICAN MARKET

The AfricArena 2018 conference was anchored and endorsed by major international sponsors La French Tech, Silicon Cape, Vinci Energies, AirFrance KLM, Engie, Saint-Gobain, Methys, Rogerwilco, City of Cape Town, Proparco, RCS, and Leroy Merlin.

The following sponsors specifically came to South Africa and AfricArena to explore innovation opportunities within Africa and abroad: RCS, Saint-Gobain, AirFrance KLM, Vinci Energies, VivaTech, Leroy Merlin, Engie, Sanofi and FSAT Labs.

“We expect to have a different approach from these startups, a bright idea that could be easily implemented, and also to benefit from what is very high potential in terms of innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives. And to find solutions that are very well adapted to the African market,” said Jean-Michel Mathieu, CEO of Joon, a subsidiary of Air France.

“African entrepreneurs are very willing to find solutions, to take risks, they address vital expectations and needs, and they are looking at the challenges with a very frugal mindset. I think this is a lesson for us as well, we learn a lot working with them and collaborating with them to find the right solutions and we take this inspiration back to Europe with us,” said Lydia Babaci-Victor, Chief Innovation and Development Officer at Vinci Energies.

Vincent Viollain, co-Founder and Head of Partnerships and Startups at VivaTech, the biggest tech conference in Europe said: “The leapfrog ability of African technology has become a bit of a cliché. But when you get a chance to see it, you’ll see that it’s actually true. African technology is frugal, its smart and it can have an impact locally as well as globally. In our winner, Aerobotics’ case we believe the solution can move beyond physical borders, and also have application in different industry sectors.” 

AFRICARENA WINNERS:

The startups who won the challenges, were grateful of the experience and excited to be moving forward with some of the largest corporations across the globe.

“Oniriq provides access to African rural populations through energy and the internet. It’s great to be here at AfricArena, it has been a journey. For two months we’ve been participating in this challenge since the selection two months ago in Dakar with Vinci Energies team and we’ve been in discussions since. For us the win is a great achievement and we’re looking forward to starting our collaboration in Senegal,” said Rodolphe Rosier, Founder of Oniriq. 

“We’d like to thank AfricArena and VivaTech for the opportunity to present and we’re really happy to have won and we cannot wait to be in Paris in May. We’re already expanding around the world and this presence at VivaTech 2019 will give us a great opportunity to meet the European market,” said Nasreen Patel, Head of Product at Aerobotics. 

“This is not just a win for DiscoverIkasi, it’s a win for the communities we work with across South Africa. It’s going to give them a lot more exposure. This is what we’ve been working towards since starting the business, to get to a platform where I can market DiscoverIkasi, our market, our experiences and the townships on an international stage. Now we need to go back home and form a strategy to scale the business across South Africa,” said Ntsebenziswano (Benzi) November, Founder of DiscoverIkasi.

The startups attending the conference will also each be receiving credit from AWS as part of their prizes. Each startup in attendance, winner or not, will receive $2000 in AWS credit.  

A WORD FROM THE ECO-SYSTEM

Kerry Petrie, General Manager of Silicon Cape, host ecosystem of AfricArena, states: “It’s such an amazing opportunity for entrepreneurs from all across the continent to connect and share, building bridges that may hold future partnership, export and market opportunities. It builds the visibility of the pan-African community for a local, regional and global stakeholder audience. We have to work together to increase investment in African ventures from 1%. And AfricArena is playing a pivotal role in making that a reality.”

Reflecting on the event, Christophe Viarnaud, CEO of AfricArena, expanded on the philosophy behind the conference. “AfricArena’s open collaborative Pan-African model, highly inclusive and embarking all categories of investors, ecosystem contributors, and corporates focused on innovation in Africa, has demonstrated very high impact throughout 2018 with 16 events on 3 continents. The grand finale at AfricArena2018 has shown the energy and excitement from 15 corporates, over 150 investors and 70 startups, with over $2m deals being done, startup-corporate partnerships being struck and a wave of energy and innovation from African entrepreneurs. We could not be more excited about the future, comments Viarnaud.  

THE WINNERS:

Air France KLM Challenge 1                     DiscoverIkasi

Air France KLM Challenge 2                    Sea Monster

Engie Challenge                                           Arnegy

Leroy Merlin Challenge                             BizAR Reality

Saint-Gobain Challenge 1                         Swift GeoSpatial

Saint-Gobain Challenge 2                         The Student Hub

Sanofi South Africa Challenge                Iyeza Health

The RCS Group Challenge                        ThisIsMe

Vinci Energies Challenge 1                       Oniriq

Vinci Energies Challenge 2                       DataProphet

Vivatech 2019 Challenge                          Aerobotics 

SPONSORS AND THEIR CHALLENGES:

Air France KLM Challenge 1 – optimising the airline’s travel experience while reducing its environmental footprint

Air France KLM Challenge 2 – using technology to enrich subsidiary Joon’s travel experience for its passengers

Engie Challenge – ensuing a reliable energy supply in urban areas

Leroy Merlin Challenge – immersive showroom experience that shows off a large variety of products

Saint-Gobain Challenge 1 – using satellite trend analysis to predict urban and climate challenges

Saint-Gobain Challenge 2 -- a solution to upgrade professionals’ skills across Africa, especially in remote areas.

Sanofi South Africa Challenge – optimising patient treatment adherence and completion rates

The RCS Group Challenge – storing and securing customer identity and authentication credentials

Vinci Energies Challenge 1 – using digitalisation to optimise industry and energy performance

Vinci Energies Challenge 2 – How to make energy more accessible in Africa using technology such as energy efficiency flow solutions, energy flow optimisation, blockchain and artificial intelligence

Vivatech 2019 Challenge – using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate growth and sustainability in the agriculture sector 

-- ENDS --

For more information on AfricArena or this press release, please contact:

Mika Stanvliet | 081 534 6237 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About AfricArena:

AfricArena is a conference that showcases Africa’s best startups and innovators in front of an audience of local and international investors looking for world-class talent.Celebrated as the largest tech ecosystem accelerator on the African continent, last year’s edition of AfricArena saw more than 80 startups presenting to over 100 investors with 25 countries being represented and over $2M worth of deals done. This year's edition saw 70 startups from 32 countries pitching to over 600 attendees. This year they are predicting that funding for African startups will crack US$1 billion. Earlier this year AfricArena launched a global tour to source the world's best tech innovators solving uniquely African problems, and the tour covered 66 000 kilometers in total. AfricArena is the ultimate deal-flow platform, bringing investors and startups together in one central location.

For more information visit: https://africarena2018.com