This year saw six start-ups represent the African continent in various categories at the recently held Global Start-up Awards in Changsha, China.
Every year, the very best start-ups, most influential individuals and top ecosystem players such as investors, acceleration programmes and co-working spaces are selected from seven regions around the world. These regions are: Nordics, South East Asia, Central Europe, SAARC Region (South Asia), Euro Asia, South Europe and Southern Africa, to compete in the independent entrepreneurial ecosystem competition.
This year, six companies represented the African continent in the categories of start-up of the year, best newcomer, founder of the year, investor of the year, best co-working space and best accelerator programme.
“It’s a great privilege to be representing the continent and one we are really excited about,” said Charles Savage, founder of South African start-up, Easy Equities, which competed in the category of start-up of the year. “Competing with global players gives us the incredible opportunity to learn, collaborate and have some fun whilst doing what we love - sharing our story and journey with the world.”
Savage believes that the reason why African countries were represented in almost every category is due to scarcity being a massive driver of innovation. “I am a firm believer that for every problem there’s an entrepreneurial opportunity waiting to be unlocked. Africa has lots of challenges to overcome and perhaps this drives us to be such effective innovators and entrepreneurs.”
Savage predicts that the next 20 years will be defined by the African continent’s growth story. “Africa’s ability to leapfrog the technologies and infrastructure that held it back over the last few decades is being enabled by smarter and faster technologies empowering the continent to surpass global growth as it comes off a low base, with consumer demand for products and services still being largely unfulfilled.”
Pedro Ferreira, director of CoWork Lab in Mozambique, which was nominated as best co-working space, concurred, adding: “I believe that the outlook for the continent is really good and that we should expect double digit growth rates from many countries in Africa over the next decade.”
On being selected to participate in the awards, Ferreira said: “It feels great and it is a big honour to represent Africa in such a competition. Co-working spaces are relatively new on our continent and this will also be an opportunity to learn from our peers and to gain more knowledge and add more connections to our network.”
Philip Kiracofe, CEO and co-founder of South African-based accelerator SBC AfriTech, one of the contenders in the best accelerator or incubator category, maintains that Africa needs many more incubators and accelerators to help empower start-ups. “We are happy to collaborate and share our best practices with anyone helping to grow tech and innovation hubs across the continent. Africa represents the most exciting growth opportunity for the rest of this century, and we say dive in and make an impact.”
Mckevin Ayaba, CEO of Setup A Start-up, the umbrella company of the Southern Africa Start-up Awards, said: “We are so proud to have been able to shine a global light on African talent and at the same time connect players in the region to help make Africa the success we all believe it can and will be in the coming decades.”
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