5 startups selected for the 2023 Irish Tech Challenge

Source: Pexels

The Irish Embassy in South Africa and the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct aim to forge mutually beneficial partnerships between South African entrepreneurs and Irish technology experts, leveraging Ireland’s global tech hub status.

This year’s challenge saw nearly 300 entries from South African-owned, growth-stage tech startups focused on fulfilling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The five selected startups have undergone an intensive pre-acceleration programme complete with workshops, masterclasses, and mentorship sessions.

The five innovators will now showcase their solutions at a special showcase event to be held at Tshimologong on Tuesday, 21 November 2023.

From there, they will head to Ireland in February 2024 for an acceleration programme with Dogpatch Labs, a 500-member strong startup and innovation hub located in Dublin.

The selected innovators are:

Thato Schermer – Zoie Health

Zoie Health is an all-in-one women’s health and family platform. Created by women for women, Zoie Health provides accessible and comprehensive healthcare services for women and families.

Neo Hutiri – Pelebox

Technovera is a social impact organisation that is focused on technology inclusion to improve last-mile delivery for chronic medication access in Africa. They have developed Pelebox, a smart locker system that enables patients to collect their repeat chronic medication in under two minutes.

Vuyo Pakade – Foonda Africa

Foonda Africa is a Pan-African talent marketplace that aims to unlock Africa’s next generation of talent. They connect companies with skilled young candidates quickly and affordably. Foonda Africa focuses on graduate recruitment and empowers young individuals across the continent.

Benedicta Durcan – Afrobodies

AfroBodies is a South African biotechnology company that produces recombinant alpaca antibodies to supply the local and global life sciences, diagnostic and therapeutic markets. They are advancing scientific research and working together with scientists to make novel discoveries that will lead to new diagnostic tests and disease treatment.

Tumelo Chiloane – Desert Green

Desert Green is an agritech transforming the informal agri-value chain in Africa by enabling an efficient supply of fresh produce from small-scale farmers to informal traders. GreenKart is their B2B eCommerce platform allowing small-scale farmers to list recently planted crops to help farmers access markets and minimise post-harvest losses.