40 to launch at DEMO Africa this week

INNOVATIONS

40 finalists have been selected from over 500 applications to launch at DEMO Africa this week.

DEMO Africa is the flagship initiative of the Liberating Innovation in Opportunity Nations in Africa (LIONS@frica) partnership and includes DEMO, Microsoft, InfoDEV, Nokia and US Department of State.

The first ever Pan African technology launch pad will be hosted by African eDevelopment Resource Centre and CIO East Africa under the auspices of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, 24 to 26 October.

The event is expected to attract venture capitalists, angel Investors, investment fund managers, tech buyers, entrepreneurs, innovation supporters & media.

A total of 500 applications were processed ahead of this event, these were then short listed to 150 ventures two weeks ago and now the final 40. “It’s been a great pleasure working with the different entrepreneurs. We congratulate the selected entrepreneurs and trust they will put their best foot forward in Nairobi. Now is the time to celebrate innovators from across the continent,” said Ben White, Founder, VC4Africa.

“Many entrepreneurs did not make the final cut despite having excellent ventures. We wish we could launch all of them at DEMO Africa, but that’s practically not possible,” said Hare. “We will however engage all of them and see how to assist them through the partnerships we have created to move their businesses to the next level,” he continued.

The 40 cover five categories – Social Media, Cloud Services, Mobile, Consumer and Enterprise Technologies.  South Africa and Kenya take a big chunk of the final 40 with Ghana and Nigeria coming in a close second. Other countries represented included Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.