Technology
World Innovation Summit in Cape Town
Start-up
winners announced
T
hree days of pitching, across five competitions, saw
78 of the world’s most innovative start-ups compete
for their share of prizes, valued at over R20m at the
2019 SA Innovation Summit.
The SA Innovation Summit took
place from Wednesday 11 to
Friday 13 September 2019 at
the Cape Town Stadium. The
annual summit brings together
over 3500 delegates from 32
countries and facilitates over R1bn
in deal-making.
The Africa Cup
The Africa Cup in partnership
with the Unicorn Group is open
to innovative ideas, start-ups and
early stage companies in tech and
tech-enabled sectors. Finalists in
the Africa Cup pitched their busi-
nesses in front of an esteemed
panel of judges on the final day of
the SA Innovation Summit.
The following start-ups were
announced as winners:
Y Y In third place, Origin
Dynamic Systems’ Updraft,
which merges artificial
intelligence and legal
expertise, won a R1m
investment offer and
one-week acceleration
in South Africa
Y Y The second prize was
taken by Vegetal Signals,
an enterprise that uses
plant electrical activity to
monitor stresses in crops,
won a R2.5m investment
offer and two weeks
acceleration in Silicon Valley,
Lagos or Budapest.
Y Y The winner, Asilimia, took
home a R5m investment offer
and three weeks acceleration
in any of the three locations.
Asilimia offers financial
services to informal traders
in Kenya, offering them
affordable insurance and
payment options.
ANDZA
Entrepreneur competition
The ANDZA Entrepreneur compe-
tition, in collaboration with the SA
SME Fund, aims to find the top
investment-ready businesses in
the country to fast track them to
success and provide a platform
to help accelerate their innova-
tive ideas to greater heights
and further develop the South
African economy.
Winners included:
y y LiquidGold Africa
The winner of R250 000
in cash was offered to
LiquidGold Africa, an
enterprise that produces
a toilet with a nutrient
recovery solution to create
fertilizer from urine.
efficiently, in persuasive
pitches to potential funders,
improving access to market,
technology and finance.
y y Winetech
The Winetech Pitching
Den looks for disruptive,
innovative, cost-effective
and practical solutions for
reducing the wine industry’s
impact on the environment.
The winners of the Winetech
Pitching Den will receive
exposure to more than 650
industry representatives in
South Africa, along with
business development to
the value of R150 000 to
be taken up in South Africa.
This prize was awarded to
Vegetal Signals.
y y SEDA Pitch & Perfect
The Small Enterprise
Development Agency (Seda)
Pitch & Perfect Masterclasses
and Competition provides
SMMEs across the country
with professional tools on
how to present business
cases effectively and
Intelligent Safe Technologies
took the first prize of
technology incentives
valued at R300 000.
Intelligent Safe Technologies
produces a smart, computer
controlled high security
dispensing system for high
value retail stock.
y y The TIA Inventors’ Garage
The TIA Inventors Garage
is aimed at innovators
and inventors with demos,
working prototypes or
products that are in the early
commercialisation stage. The
enterprises are evaluated
on originality, need for their
invention, growth potential,
practicality and creativity.
Shuri, an enterprise that
detects and monitors
water leaks using satellite
imagery and deep learning
technology, took the prize of
R10 000 in cash.
SABI | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019
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