The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) this week announced the seventh edition of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) themed “investing in inclusive innovation ecosystems” thereby inviting submissions to reward the best home-grown innovations on the continent. The annual awards seek to celebrate outstanding breakthroughs that deliver practical, and commercially viable African solutions that are innovative and sustainable.
The call for entries will run for three months starting from 10 October 2017 with a submission deadline of 10 January 2018 at 23:59pm GMT. IPA’s goal is to strengthen African innovation ecosystems by supporting a culture of innovation and competitiveness, whilst spurring growth of innovative, market-driven African solutions to African challenges. Specifically, IPA honours and encourages pioneering achievements that contribute towards developing new products, increasing efficiency and/or saving cost in Africa. Applications will be accepted from all Africans including those living in the diaspora.
This edition encourages greater participation from women innovators who are increasingly playing a key role in driving African economies forward through business and entrepreneurship.
The submissions will be judged on the backdrop of IPA’s themes supporting social and economic innovation in the following five categories: manufacturing and service industry; health and well-being; agriculture and agri-business; environment, energy and water; and ICT showcasing ground-breaking innovations.
IPA 2018 winners will be announced at an annual ceremony in July 2018 (exact dates and country to be confirmed). The awards is the leading innovation event on the African calendar, bringing together some of Africa’s most inspiring innovators and entrepreneurs, leaders of hubs and accelerators, angel and venture capital investors, development institutions, government leaders, media practitioners and other game changers.
Meet The Most Promising Startups Selected To Pitch At Seedstars Luanda 2017
Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes has brought its pre-selection rounds to an end and selected the most promising tech startups to pitch at the Seedstars Luanda pitching event on 13 October.
The top startups selected to advance to the pitching event are:
- Techno Society – A portable electronic device capable of charging low energy consumption equipment such as PC and mobile phones through water.
- GlobalTech OMICROM – An integral system of hospital management using artificial intelligence in order to minimize human error in hospitals.
- AngoGaming – A virtual competition platform for the gaming community in Angola dedicated to E-Sports.
- Deya – Deya is a crowdfunding platform that connects entrepreneurs and creatives to a community of supporters to help them bring their ideas to life.
- IAA – Imagens Aereas de Angola – Provides aerial photo acquisition services and photogrammetric data using drones.
- Na Via – A company that’s revolutionising the way consumers access advertising campaigns.
- Salo – An online platform that allows its users to find and hire services for certain tasks such as cleaning, delivery and home services.
- Softwares 4Mais – Enables companies and schools to manage their business faster, cheaper and more efficiently.
- UseKamba – A mobile wallet that allows for reliable online payments.
A2X reports A Seamless First Trading Cycle
A2X, SA’s newest stock exchange, has successfully cleared and settled all of the trades executed on A2X on launch day – Friday, 6 October. A2X competes directly with the JSE and provides an alternative platform for companies to secondary list and trade their shares. It is aligned with the current T+3 settlement process used in South Africa and utilises the existing capital markets settlements infrastructure, Strate.
The executions comprised various trade types, ensuring that both client agency and broker principal executions were on T+3 as per normal market convention.
Brett Kotze, A2X Head of Post Trade Services, says that seamless trades, along with a smooth clearing and settlement process are an important milestone for A2X.
“It provides our market participants with the additional assurance that our post trade systems are functioning as planned and communicated. All approved brokers connected on launch day and as anticipated, there was light trade on the system as A2X was put to the test to ensure our full trade, allocation, clearing and settlement process operate effectively.”
A2X continues to review additional applications from brokers for approval and is also engaging with a number of issuers to grow the market. “The successful launch of A2X underpins the willingness of participants to accept and support competition in the South African market,” says Kotze.
