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Global medical firm Johnson & Johnson has launched the second edition of its Africa Innovation Challenge, which offers mentorship and US$50,000 in financial support to selected health and environmental solutions.

The continent-wide Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 is calling on African innovators to submit ideas for innovative technologies, products and solutions that have the potential to create positive impact for African communities.

Winning solutions are eligible for mentorship and US$50,000 in financial support and resources to help bring their ideas to market.

“The growing number of innovation hubs throughout Africa is sparking a new generation of entrepreneurs who are innovating and finding new solutions for issues facing their communities,” said Josh Ghaim, chief technology officer at Johnson & Johnson.

“Our goal with the second Africa Innovation Challenge is to expand our support for the region’s entrepreneurs by pushing the boundaries of creative solutions to meet several areas of urgent need. With six new solution categories, Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 represents an extraordinary opportunity for the region’s growing community of innovators to showcase new ideas with the potential for broad societal impact.”

The Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 is designed to address the critical unmet needs of the continent and local communities in Africa while providing support to Africa-based entrepreneurs in creating innovative health care products and services. Among the selection criteria, entries must demonstrate the potential for scale from proof of concept stage to long-term sustainability.

The challenge’s six new solution categories aim to address significant threats to Africa’s health care systems and environment. Johnson & Johnson is looking for botanical solutions, packaging innovations, solutions in mental health, health worker support platforms, digital health tools, and solutions in essential surgical care.

Applications are open here until January 16.

The post Johnson & Johnson launches 2nd Africa Innovation Challenge appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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Global medical firm Johnson & Johnson has launched the second edition of its Africa Innovation Challenge, which offers mentorship and US$50,000 in financial support to selected health and environmental solutions.

The continent-wide Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 is calling on African innovators to submit ideas for innovative technologies, products and solutions that have the potential to create positive impact for African communities.

Winning solutions are eligible for mentorship and US$50,000 in financial support and resources to help bring their ideas to market.

“The growing number of innovation hubs throughout Africa is sparking a new generation of entrepreneurs who are innovating and finding new solutions for issues facing their communities,” said Josh Ghaim, chief technology officer at Johnson & Johnson.

“Our goal with the second Africa Innovation Challenge is to expand our support for the region’s entrepreneurs by pushing the boundaries of creative solutions to meet several areas of urgent need. With six new solution categories, Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 represents an extraordinary opportunity for the region’s growing community of innovators to showcase new ideas with the potential for broad societal impact.”

The Africa Innovation Challenge 2.0 is designed to address the critical unmet needs of the continent and local communities in Africa while providing support to Africa-based entrepreneurs in creating innovative health care products and services. Among the selection criteria, entries must demonstrate the potential for scale from proof of concept stage to long-term sustainability.

The challenge’s six new solution categories aim to address significant threats to Africa’s health care systems and environment. Johnson & Johnson is looking for botanical solutions, packaging innovations, solutions in mental health, health worker support platforms, digital health tools, and solutions in essential surgical care.

Applications are open here until January 16.

The post Johnson & Johnson launches 2nd Africa Innovation Challenge appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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Nigerian startup Chekkit has a big vision – one day, it hopes its labels will be a seal of quality for every great product, making sure people know the background of everything the consume.

Formed at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana, Chekkit has built a platform that tracks product movement and the parties involved in the transfer of products from warehouse to distributor, and on to the final consumer.

Essentially, Chekkit is an anti-counterfeiting, asset tracking and consumer feedback analytics tool. It produces tamper-proof unique ID labels, either as QR codes or numeric codes, which can be placed on premium packaged food and beverage products for supply chain and consumer feedback tracking.

For consumer feedback tracking, numeric codes on labels are authenticated via USSD at point of sale, with feedback and location also collected within this session and consumers rewarded with either instant airtime or loyalty points as incentives.

Meanwhile, the Chekkit mobile app is used to obtain and synchronise information on every unit’s movement from warehouse through to delivery point, and generate an invoice, helping businesses cut a three-day sales circle down to minutes. All supply chain activities can be tracked and traced on a dashboard in real time, while events captured by each of its unique ID labels are logged on the Ethereum blockchain network and encrypted to ensure data integrity.

The startup was formed after co-founders Dare Odumade and Jida Asare met while taking part in the MEST programme. Asare is a pharmacist and software developer who identified supply chain challenges caused by illicit drug traders, while Odumade, an inventor and UI/UX expert, was also interested in creating a supply chain solution to reduce counterfeiting in Africa.

“Reviewing past data, we found counterfeiting was reduced to 12 per cent in 2012 thanks to the existing Mobile Authentication Scheme (MAS) technologies provided by mPedigree and Sproxil, but suddenly from 2015 it rose again to over 40 per cent across Africa as a result of inefficiencies,” Odumade said.

These inefficiencies were mainly along the supply chain, at sensitive points where companies lose visibility on their distribution chain. Chekkit leverages a combination of existing technologies like MAS, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to solve these challenges.

Chekkit, which operates in both Nigeria and Ghana, has plans to expand into the rest of the continent and to Asia, but for now is working closely with a few enterprise companies, such as pharmaceutical producers and FMCG producers, as it continues building its technology.

“We are also actively looking to commence licensing of the Chekkit platform for enhancing excise tax-stamp systems in Ghana and NAFDAC’s serialisation policies in Nigeria through our interconnected anti-counterfeiting technology – enabling you and I report counterfeits while empowering producers to comply with government policies and greatly increase their ROI, a win-win situation for all,” said Odumade.

The startup has been bootstrapped until now, but is actively raising a pre-seed round with various investors. It was also until recently pre-revenue, but has now begun servicing a large-scale enterprise producer for a fee, with Chekkit codes being used by consumers to vote for their favourite video in a promotional campaign. Odumade said down the line it will charge either a flexible pay-as-you-use model or a yearly licensing fee for the Chekkit platform.

A major challenge is the fact that most of the pharmaceutical producers who wish to implement Chekkit’s technology are restrained because we it is not yet approved as a licensed anti-counterfeiting technology in Nigeria.

“With a license from the authorities in Nigeria and Ghana our technology will drastically reduce counterfeiting in Africa, enable the government and producers to have real-time market visibility, save lives of millions and adequately benefit the economy in the long term,” Odumade said.

The post How Nigerian startup Chekkit tackles counterfeiting in all its forms appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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Nigerian startup Chekkit has a big vision – one day, it hopes its labels will be a seal of quality for every great product, making sure people know the background of everything the consume.

Formed at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana, Chekkit has built a platform that tracks product movement and the parties involved in the transfer of products from warehouse to distributor, and on to the final consumer.

Essentially, Chekkit is an anti-counterfeiting, asset tracking and consumer feedback analytics tool. It produces tamper-proof unique ID labels, either as QR codes or numeric codes, which can be placed on premium packaged food and beverage products for supply chain and consumer feedback tracking.

For consumer feedback tracking, numeric codes on labels are authenticated via USSD at point of sale, with feedback and location also collected within this session and consumers rewarded with either instant airtime or loyalty points as incentives.

Meanwhile, the Chekkit mobile app is used to obtain and synchronise information on every unit’s movement from warehouse through to delivery point, and generate an invoice, helping businesses cut a three-day sales circle down to minutes. All supply chain activities can be tracked and traced on a dashboard in real time, while events captured by each of its unique ID labels are logged on the Ethereum blockchain network and encrypted to ensure data integrity.

The startup was formed after co-founders Dare Odumade and Jida Asare met while taking part in the MEST programme. Asare is a pharmacist and software developer who identified supply chain challenges caused by illicit drug traders, while Odumade, an inventor and UI/UX expert, was also interested in creating a supply chain solution to reduce counterfeiting in Africa.

“Reviewing past data, we found counterfeiting was reduced to 12 per cent in 2012 thanks to the existing Mobile Authentication Scheme (MAS) technologies provided by mPedigree and Sproxil, but suddenly from 2015 it rose again to over 40 per cent across Africa as a result of inefficiencies,” Odumade said.

These inefficiencies were mainly along the supply chain, at sensitive points where companies lose visibility on their distribution chain. Chekkit leverages a combination of existing technologies like MAS, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to solve these challenges.

Chekkit, which operates in both Nigeria and Ghana, has plans to expand into the rest of the continent and to Asia, but for now is working closely with a few enterprise companies, such as pharmaceutical producers and FMCG producers, as it continues building its technology.

“We are also actively looking to commence licensing of the Chekkit platform for enhancing excise tax-stamp systems in Ghana and NAFDAC’s serialisation policies in Nigeria through our interconnected anti-counterfeiting technology – enabling you and I report counterfeits while empowering producers to comply with government policies and greatly increase their ROI, a win-win situation for all,” said Odumade.

The startup has been bootstrapped until now, but is actively raising a pre-seed round with various investors. It was also until recently pre-revenue, but has now begun servicing a large-scale enterprise producer for a fee, with Chekkit codes being used by consumers to vote for their favourite video in a promotional campaign. Odumade said down the line it will charge either a flexible pay-as-you-use model or a yearly licensing fee for the Chekkit platform.

A major challenge is the fact that most of the pharmaceutical producers who wish to implement Chekkit’s technology are restrained because we it is not yet approved as a licensed anti-counterfeiting technology in Nigeria.

“With a license from the authorities in Nigeria and Ghana our technology will drastically reduce counterfeiting in Africa, enable the government and producers to have real-time market visibility, save lives of millions and adequately benefit the economy in the long term,” Odumade said.

The post How Nigerian startup Chekkit tackles counterfeiting in all its forms appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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Nigerian fintech startups have been invited to apply to develop a payroll management solution for SMEs to be implemented by First City Monument Bank (FCMB).

Disrupt Africa reported in March Nigeria’s Passion Incubator had partnered the Swedish Embassy to launch Collaborate, a platform that allows corporates to present challenges, and startups already building solutions along those lines to help solve them.

The Lagos-based FCMB is using the platform to find a startup to build an innovative payroll management solution for SMEs, which should be able to do things like compute salaries, make deductions, index payments, retrieve and queue customer complaints, and generate pay-slips.

With the bank saying most SMEs are not structured and have poor record keeping practices, including payroll management, it wants to work with a startup to develop a relevant solution. Applicants must be registered Nigerian businesses with a structured team and experience of developing a similar project.

Applications are open here until Friday, November 16.

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The 10 startups that took part in the just-concluded Startupbootcamp AfriTech programme in Cape Town secured a total of 20 pilot agreements with corporates and have secured EUR600,000 (US$680,000) in funding to date.

Disrupt Africa reported in July that 10 African tech startups had been selected to take part in the second edition of the Cape Town-based, corporate-backed Startupbootcamp AfriTech accelerator, with each securing EUR15,000 (US$17,500) in funding and access to mentors and partners.

These startups showcased to over 200 200 investors and corporate leaders at a demo day yesterday (November 8), where it was announced a total of 20 pilot agreements had been signed, while the startups had generated EUR600,000 in funding so far.

Ivory Coast-based insurtech startup Digitech announced a partnership with SAHAM, the largest insurance company in West and Central Africa, while South African  mobility-as-a-service platform Lüla announced several large corporate offices in the Cape Town area will now be using its shuttle service for employees, including Aurecon, V&A Waterfront, RCS and Old Mutual.

Kenya’s MPost, a patented technology that enables any mobile phone user to transform their phone into a unique mobile postal address and mobile postal box, has had early pilot discussions in four African countries, and is in the process of closing multiple deals with both corporate and government entities.

South Africa’s Brandbook, a decentralised rewards programme, conducted a pilot with Unilever that resulted in over 1,000 receipts being analysed, while Pago, an MNO-driven online payments processor, has integrated with Mastercard’s Masterpass API.

Another South African startup, savings platform Akiba Digital, announced a PoC with RCS, while Nigerian startup Kudimoney has run a beta version with 10,000 people that ended up saving more than US$300,000 in goal-based savings.

Apart from the key startup announcements of the day, Startupbootcamp AfriTech itself announced a new collaboration with Uprise Africa.

“Our demo day is about showcasing our incredible startups from this year’s cohort, and linking them to potential investors. As part of the focus of supporting startups, we are excited to announce our partnership with Uprise.Africa, the first equity crowdfunding platform in South Africa to link great startups to alternative funding solutions,” said Zachariah George, co-founder of Startupbootcamp AfriTech.

“This year we validated that our accelerator can help corporates scale internal innovation capabilities and turn those into spin-out companies, like the startup Sizanani that participated in our accelerator programme,” said Philip Kiracofe, co-founder of Starttupbootcamp AfriTech.

The 2018 startup cohort for the first time included a corporate startup from Unilever. The company enrolled a small internal team with the aim to reignite “the founder’s mentality” into its innovation thinking, as well as integrate a truly “lean startup” approach to new product development. The agile startup Sizanani, a stokvel solution for bulk buying, is already post-revenue.

“We’re were very excited to be able to trial and pilot this approach to demonstrate that innovative corporations with the proper resources and the proper support can take internal ideas and develop that as innovation capability within the organisation,” said Kiracofe.

The post Startupbootcamp AfriTech cohort secures 20 corporate pilot agreements appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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Ghanaian agritech startup CowTribe has secured US$300,000 in funding to expand into more regions of the West African country.

Launched in 2016 and recently named winner of the Ghanaian leg of the Seedstars World competition, Cowtribe enables animal vaccines to be ordered via USSD, text and telephone, as well as through a network of community agents.

The startup sources and aggregates genuine and affordable vaccinations from large suppliers, and works through a network of qualified agents to deliver them to farmers.

In an announcement made via a Twitter post, Cowtribe said it had raised US$300,000 investment from the United States (US)-based Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, which funds and supports early stage, high impact social enterprises tackling pressing global issues.

Since its launch, Cowtribe has served more than 30,000 farmers in over 120 villages, processing over 9,000 vaccine requests worth over US$100,000 in revenue. It currently operates in four of Ghana’s 10 regions, but expects to cover the whole country in the next 18 months with the investment funds.

“Key goals include establishing first mover advantage in Ghana, building a strong brand equity and ensuring that it is economically non-viable for competition to secure market share within Cowtribe’s market,” co-founder Peter Awin told Disrupt Africa in a previous interview.

“In the long run, our also plan to serve and expand into other African countries, most likely Mali and Burkina Faso.”

The post Ghanaian agri-tech startup CowTribe raises $300k funding appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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Three South African startups have been chosen to take part in the second edition of the MAN Impact Accelerator in Munich, which supports impact-driven mobility and logistics platforms.

The MAN Impact Accelerator brings together social entrepreneurs from Europe, South Africa and India to tackle social and environmental challenges through innovative solutions in the transport and logistics space.

Selected parties connect with fellow entrepreneurs and get access to a pool of more than 300 mentors from MAN Truck & Bus, Salesforce and Yunus Social Business.

Eight startups have been selected for the second edition of the programme from a pool of 266 applications. They include three from South Africa: Last Mile for BoP, which improves the distribution of goods and services in townships and rural areas; Mobile Schools Health, which delivers optometry, dentistry and primary healthcare services to children in underserved communities; and VIA Global Health, a health purchasing platform.

They have now embarked on an eight-month, equity-free programme that provides founders with industry expertise, tactical mentoring, input from serial entrepreneurs, and connections with a broad community to help accelerate their businesses.

The eight startups will also embark on a tour taking in Bangalore, Cape Town and San Francisco before the programme closes with a ceremony in Munich in June 2019.

The post 3 SA startups take part in MAN Impact Accelerator appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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The fifth annual Africa Early Stage Investor Summit begins in Cape Town on Sunday, November 11, bringing together the continent’s early-stage investor community to exchange best practices, learn from peers and recent transactions, and do deals.

For the second consecutive year, the summit will be hosted at Workshop17 in the V&A Waterfront, organised by VC4A and the African Business Angels Network (ABAN). The event kicks off a busy week in Cape Town, with the summit having partnered with AfricaCom and AfricArena to offer a full-week VIP Investor Pass giving access to all three events, as well as an innovation tour.

The organisers of the investor summit have chosen “The African Way to Investing” as the theme for this year’s event, will various keynotes, panel discussions and other sessions covering how VC models are being adapted for Africa, how what is being done to grow the number of local angel investors, and what instruments allow diaspora investors to play an active role.

Day one of the summit, on Sunday, offers participants the Investing Academy, featuring a number of workshops and masterclasses for both aspiring and experienced investors. In the afternoon, participants are invited to join the official Summit Welcome Cocktails, organised in partnership with Naspers.

The second day of the summit provides a highly focused yet varied programme consisting of keynotes, panels, workshops and masterclasses for investors by investors, networking experiences, exclusive co-investment opportunities, and the latest trends, insights and industry research. The day concludes with an exclusive investor networking dinner.

On Wednesday, November 14, all participants are invited to take part in the Cape Town and Stellenbosch Innovation Tour.

Speakers include the newly elected president of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) Peter Cowley, Ido Sum of TL Com Capital, Khaled Ismail of HIMangel, Wale Ayeni of the IFC, Sam Paddock of GetSmarter, Keet van Zyl of Knife Capital, Quinton Soper of Proparco, Manuel Koser of Silvertree Internet Holdings, Marieme Diop of Orange Digital Ventures, and Amee Pharboo of Accion.

The summit will also encompass the VC4A Venture Showcase – Series A, introducing eight tech growth-stage companies selected and vetted by Africa’s leading VCs.

Eight startups from across the continent have been selected to receive mentoring from top VCs and pitch at the summit, with the aim of raising between US$250,000 and US$5 million in Series A capital. They will also be pitching at AfricaCom and AfricArena.

Two of the selected startups are from South Africa, namely GoMetro, which has developed cloud-based technology to make transport planning, tracking, paying and reporting much easier, and Invoiceworx, which provides access to inventory and purchase order of financing for small businesses.

Nigeria is also represented by two startups in the form of Fibre, which allows users to find and pay for rental homes, and Piggybank, which provides an automated savings platform enabling users to manage their finances by depositing small amounts of money.

Another two startups are from Egypt – multi-disciplinary research centre for natural and medical sciences Nawah-Scientific and online mental health platform Shezlong – while Ghana is represented by agri-tech startup AgroCentaand Ethiopia by IT personnel marketplace Gebeya.

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Egyptian startup EDEALO has seen traction all over the world with its platform that offers users access to deals from more than 700 different global brands.

Launched in 2016, EDEALO gives users access to offers and discounts from online platforms in areas such as travel, fashion, electronics and education.

The self-funded startup publishes online offers and deals from all over the world, and describes itself as a hub for anyone that wants to save money on goods and services. The platform is free for customers, with EDEALO aggregating and publishing the deals and requiring no commitment from the visitors’ end.

More than 700 different brands are featured on the platform, with co-founders Ahmed El-Gholmy and Mahmoud ElFiky saying it had been built with only one thing in mind- enabling users to save money and stay informed about the price and availability of coupons and deals.

“There is a huge growing number of online shoppers and bookers who are overwhelmed with endless number of online shopping and booking options,” said El-Gholmy.

“We solve this problem by helping our users save time and money by choosing only the valid offers for the period. We also support them by having an online booking platform on our website through the biggest travel bookers in the world, such as Hotels.com, Skyscanner and more.”

EDEALO also has an integrated Facebook Messenger bot to help users find the offers they are looking for as easily as possible, guiding them through deals and connecting them with an EDEALO representative if need be.

“We have grown to over 700 global brands and helped thousands of global frugals to save money in online transactions,” ElFiky said.

“Since we formally launched in 2017, we have been gaining traction month-on-month, with revenue and profits climbing in the 30 per cent margin. Of course some categories or brands are outperforming others but we have managed to scale up without seeking any funding or loans.”

The post Egypt’s EDEALO offers users deals from over 700 global brands appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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