UCT GSB Solution Space and ayoba debut 10 new startups in Demo Day showcase

Demo Day is an opportunity to observe the progress made by the ventures during their time in the E-Track Programme and to hear more about their future development plans beyond incubation. The virtual event was well attended by various stakeholders from within the startup ecosystem, including VCs, and early-stage investors who joined to witness the debut of 10 new African startups.

The 10 startups that pitched and their solutions:

• NOOSi - a startup making quality home-based health care more accessible.
  
• CATi – software enabling business transformation through IoT solutions.
  
• Tike Solutions Systems Ltd - a venture enabling reliable and safe management procedures for events and logistics.
  
• Spekboom - A venture setting out to redistribute global online travel booking commissions to local tourism providers and drive the long-term sustainability of African tourism.
  
• Fortis Biohacking - An interactive app that facilitates health and performance data management.
  
• Desert Green Africa - A startup offering end-to-end optimisation of the informal agricultural value chain.
  
• Smart Box™ By Line of Sight Technology – An app providing real-time, smart medicine and first-aid control.
  
• MariHealth Solutions - A startup improving aquaculture productivity through marine health monitoring and management systems.
  
• VeriDev - A platform making access to quality technical talent easy and affordable for non-technical founders.
  
• Wubuntu – A startup driving intercultural empowerment between African and Chinese youth through immersion tours and online learning.

Three startups were specially acknowledged and awarded prize money during the event, for their high-impact, innovative solutions and progress made.

1. Most Progress Award: Tike Solutions Systems Ltd – R30,000
   High-Impact Award: NOOSi – R20,000
   
2. Most Promising Award: Smart Box™ By Line of Sight Technology – R10,000
   

In addition to these awards, ayoba announced that they will be providing further mentorship and support to all of the ventures to continue their venture building journey.

“Ayoba is excited to see the amazing progress the teams have made during the last 3 months and look forward to continue supporting the whole cohort in scaling their solutions. We feel the ayoba platform with its microapp capability is a great way for startups to get traction in the market and to connect to millions of ayoba users across the continent in a quick and cost effective way. We are continuously looking for promising ventures that would benefit from being part of the platform and could bring engaging content (video, music, games, infotainment) and business solutions to our user base through PWA microapps”, says Eero Tarjanne, Head of Business & Ecosystem Development, ayoba.

About UCT GSB Solution Space

The Solution Space at the UCT GSB is an ecosystem for early-stage start-ups as well as a research and development platform for corporates. The university's Vice Chancellors Strategic Award provided our initial capital and our founding partner, the MTN Group, continued to provide significant support. Our vision is to be known and recognised for pioneering ideas that impact and shape the future of the continent; our mission is to inspire, nurture and equip the next generation of leaders to build a better future. We believe that behind all great companies are reliable founders – so we support entrepreneurs to learn and grow, providing them with access to resources, corporate partners, mentors, advisory services, co-working space, speakers, and partnerships.

About ayoba

Since its launch in May 2019, ayoba has reached millions of users, with a current active user base over 8 million monthly active users. It offers users free access to an ecosystem of digital and rich media services through channels, micro-apps and payment solutions, embedded within an African super-app.

Ayoba is highly localised and tailored for African and Middle East consumer needs, supporting 22 relevant languages. Users can send and receive encrypted messages, share photos, videos, files and voice notes and can also subscribe to live channels. Family friendly localised content is available through curated channels aimed at entertaining, educating and empowering communities as well as a range of games. Ayoba is available for Android users on the Google, Transsion, Huawei, Samsung and BeMobi stores as well as the ayoba website (ayoba.me). The PWA can be accessed at web.ayoba.me.

For more information please contact:

Media enquiries: Olivier Prentout
Email address: em.aboya@rp
Ecosystems and developer enquiries: Eero Tarjanne
Email address: em.aboya@toree

Visit our developer portal at developer.ayoba.me.