Women in Tech: ECA-BetaCube Startup Accelerator Announces Finalists
ADDIS ABABA – The Tech African Women (TAW) program has concluded its Bootcamp and pitch competition, with eight female-led and idea-stage tech startups progressing to the finals.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Betacube launched the program last August, with an objective to support female-led tech startups from Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania, and Tunisia from the idea stage into real-world operations.
The program, involving 3 main phases, has now entered its incubation stage after a series of Bootcamp and pitch competitions concluded successfully, according to the ECA.
The Bootcamp engaged a total of 74 women participants selected out of 338 applicants, 12 finalists, and 8 projects from the four targeted countries all selected by a local jury panel.
“The outcome of the competition showed that African women are beyond ready to tackle the socio-economic issues of the continent with tech ideas encircling strategic areas such as optimization of agriculture outputs and enhancing health education,” said the ECA.
The first stage of the TAW initiative focused on 3 days of tailored workshops with key skills introduced to inspire the entrepreneurs and prepare them for the pitching competition.
The Bootcamp mainly included training on market analysis, team building, lean startup methodology, and project pitching with relevance to UN Sustainable Development Goals as the final project selection criteria along with market size potential, the extent of innovation, and scalability of the idea.
The first and second place best start-up ideas of each of the pitching competitions hosted on the third day of each city boot camp won a ticket to get access to a 2-month equity free incubation program and a fully funded trip to Addis Ababa for the final ceremony.
The second stage of the program, which is the incubation phase, will be focusing on leading the startups to the investment-readiness level with a fully functioning MVP, according to the organizers of the Program.
The founders will have the support of experts in Market research, Product Management, Branding, Pitching, and Finance.
At the end of the incubation program, the 8 startups will get to showcase and pitch the projects to which they’re dedicating their time and effort.
This event will be taking place at ECA Conference Center in Addis Ababa where National investors, partners, and key players in the Ethiopian ecosystem will be mobilized for the demo day.
THE FINALISTS
Ethiopia
1st place: TenaSeb – ጤና ሠብ: An application that provides education about (Sexual and Reproductive Health through consultations for women.
2nd place: Makoyamoms: A platform that helps mothers easily get a caregiver at their disposal while offering young girls who just graduated a job.
Tunisia
1st place: Govinda: An application dedicated to the breeders of cows to optimize the quality of milk and Beef through improving the nutrition and health status of cows.
2nd place: Apple of my Eye: A platform capable of grouping all data related to mothers and children and offering recommendations based on web analysis & machine learning.
Senegal
1st place: Noppal Tech: An application linked to an air purifier made fully in Senegal
2nd place: Hydro Tech Services: An automatic system formed by several sensors that allow the tank to be filled remotely and to review the Physico-chemical parameters through a digital platform.
Tanzania
1st place: UJANA: An e-commerce platform for Sexual-Reproductive health supplies where youth can purchase products and receive SRH information without fear of judgment, stigma, and discrimination.
2nd place: PlateAI Company: PlateAI leverages the power of AI to plan healthy food options that align with the health goals of individuals at risk of getting dietary ailments. as well as deliver them to their clients to their doorsteps affordably.
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