2015 has been a busy year in Africa’s tech startup ecosystem, with startups launching, raising funding, getting acquired, or closing down, on a daily basis. Of the startups just setting out on their journey, some have lingered on our mind. So here, meet the 12 emerging African tech startups we at Disrupt Africa will be watching in 2016. We expect exciting things.
NORTH AFRICA
Yaoota
Egypt-based startup Yaoota operates a shopping search engine helping users compare products and prices in a variety of online stores. Launched in July 2014 and initially self-funded, Yaoota helps shoppers navigate through the increasing number of online products in Egypt, compare prices, and shop directly from the merchant.
In October, the startup raised US$2.7 million in funding – the largest investment in an Egyptian tech startup to date – from the Abu Dhabi-based KBBO Group to aid its expansion across Africa and the Middle East; so 2016 promises to be an exciting year for the startup.
DabaDoc
Moroccan startup DabaDoc allows users to find doctors and book appointments online.
Initially launched in Morocco in 2014, the startup expanded to Algeria and Tunisia in May, listing over 2,000 doctorsacross the three countries. In September, DabaDoc launched in Nigeria and South Africa, as part of a rapid pan-continental expansion push; and by that time featured doctors in 72 different specialties across 50 cities.
DabaDoc has already been recognised in a number of competitions. It was selected as one of 10 startups in the MENA region to participate in the Aspen Blackstone programme in Silicon Valley; and it took first place at the GIST competition in Casablanca.
EAST AFRICA
Shield Finance
Kenyan startup Shield Finance uses proprietary technology and leverages mobile money to offer underbanked employees affordable salary advances directly to their mobile phones, generating revenue on interest charged on salary advances.
The startup has been gaining acclaim recently at a number of competitions. In June it came out on top against five other teams at the DEMO Africa pre-pitch event held in Nairobi, becoming the second startup to book its place at the main event in Lagos, Nigeria in September. In July, it was a winner in the finance category at the PIVOT East mobile startups pitching competition in Nairobi.
In August, Disrupt Africa reported Shield Finance raised an undisclosed round of funding from a local angel investor. Nonetheless, the startup is still looking to raise a seed round of US$350,000 for equity, which will be used to hire sales staff and ramp up its technical capacity in readiness to scale.
WeFarm
Also from Kenya, social enterprise WeFarm has developed a peer-to-peer (P2P) knowledge sharing platform for small-scale farmers in rural communities, which allows farmers to ask questions via SMS shortcodes and receive answers from other registered users.
The platform is open to anyone, including experts and those wishing to do business with farmers, and is available in both English and Swahili. It is approaching 50,000 questions asked on the platform, with 60 per cent of its users active monthly.
Launched in November last year, WeFarm already has over 38,000 users, and is targeting more than 500,000 active farmers by the end of 2016.
SafeMotos
Rwandan startup SafeMotos is looking to address the country’s shocking road traffic accident statistics, particularly with regard to motorcycles – with 80 per cent of road accidents in Rwanda involving a motorbike.
SafeMotos is an Uber-esque hailing app for Rwanda’s popular motorcycle taxis. However, there is a twist in the app’s backend, which makes the most of the vehicle telematics industry. The company installs smartphones on motorbike taxis to track drivers’ behaviour and register data, pushing bad drivers to the outskirts of the system.
The startup has raised US$85,000, and plans to hit 400 trips per day in the next couple of months.
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