DEMO Africa unveils names of 35 shortlisted startups, South Africans, Nigerians dominate list

DEMO Africa has unveiled a list of 35 companies that have been shortlisted from an original pool of 956 applications from 29 African countries that will undergo the final vetting to launch their products at this year’s launch event in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“We received a total of 956 applications this year, which is about 20% more than last year,” said Harry Hare, Executive Director and Producer of DEMO Africa.  The applications covered all major verticals – health, agriculture, trade and commerce, manufacturing, hospitality and entertainment, banking and finance. “We are very pleased with the applications received, the diversity and quality is amazing,” Harry continued.

The 35 companies are spread over 10 countries with South Africa and Nigeria leading the pack, where South Africa produced 10, Nigeria 9, Kenya 7, Ghana and Zimbabwe 2 each and 1 from Botswana, Cameroun, Egypt, Senegal and Uganda.

These startups will now undergo a due diligence process out of which 26 startups will make it to the final. “From this pool, we will pick 26 startups that will join 4 other startups, picked from the regional Innovation tours that ran between March and July,” Hare said.

He went on to say that the interaction encouraged more startups to apply and stand an opportunity to be amongst the top thirty-five who will get chance on the world class stage to interact with an ecosystem of VCs, investors, tech acquisition specialists, IT buyers and media from across the region and around the globe.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the startups, partners and judges that took part in this process and want to congratulate the startups that have made it this far”, he concluded.

Below are the shortlisted startups: 

DEMO Africa is one of the LIONS@FRICA initiatives and seeks to create new opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa by providing a platform designed to inspire and challenge African innovators and entrepreneurs. The LIONS@FRICA partnership provides African companies seeking to launch their product with capacity building and training in business development, provide connectivity to global innovation grids, promote access to capital, create opportunities for partnership, and showcase best practices and successes in African-led innovation solutions.

Since its inception, DEMO Africa has launched 180 startups in the last 5 years raising over US $54 million in investments and billings. Over 50 DEMO alumni launch companies have been acquired by tech giants including Adobe, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Symantec, Viacom and Yahoo!.