The winners of this year’s Southern Africa Startup Awards, one of five regional competitions within the Global Startup Awards (GSA) Africa, have been revealed to be fifteen startups from South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
The announcement was made late last week at the opening of GITEX Africa 2023 in Marrakech, Morocco. The largest gathering of innovation stakeholders to take place on the continent will be GITEX Africa 2023, which will bring together influential figures from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to promote the uptake of cutting-edge technology in Africa.
At the Southern Africa competition this year, South African startups won 11 titles. This includes recognition for the Best Newcomer (BAOM Eco Solutions), Best Accelerator / Incubator Program (WomHub), Best Diversity Role Model of the Year (NOOSi), Best Ecosystem Hero of the Year (Innovation City), Best Health-Tech Startup (LIQID Medical), Best Commerce-Tech Startup (Floatpays), Best Mobility & Logistics-Tech Startup: (Basket eCommerce), Best Green-Tech Startup (Mzansi Meat Co.), and Best Ed.
Mozambique and Namibia won the prizes for Best Agri-Tech Startup (Sustainable Planet) and Founder of the Year (Lynkwise), while Zimbabwe came in second place with two awards for Startup of the Year (Forestry & Citrus Research) and Best Co-Working Space (Tech Hub).
These regional winners will now proceed to the GSA Africa competition’s continental finals, where they will face off against competitors from Northern, Eastern, Western, and Central Africa. Startups selected as African winners will then participate in the GSA Grand Finale, where they will have the exceptional chance to present their products alongside some of the world’s top businesspeople, VCs, and ecosystem enablers.
These startups now have the unique chance to collaborate with the Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG), the competition’s dedicated investment partner, through its GIIG Africa Fund in addition to being recognized as regional winners. The GIIG Africa Foundation, which links startups to international partners and resources to support their development, is helping to make this happen.
