Seventy-one startups from across Africa have been named regional winners at this year’s Global Startup Awards (GSA) Africa. Twenty three African countries are represented in the line-up of regional winners.
The 2022/23 season attracted 8,272 entries from all 54 African states, resulting in 71 regional winners being named across the Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and Central Africa competitions.
Launched in 2021, GSA Africa is a platform dedicated to showcasing and scaling Africa’s most promising startups. This year’s competition focused on solutions in agriculture, climate change, commerce, education, healthcare, and mobility & logistics, with particular interest in startups championing Web3.0 technologies, sustainable business models, green innovation, and diversity in the workplace.
The competition saw entrants first compete at a national level before vying for their spot as a regional finalist. Winners were then decided by an independent panel of judges, offering a wholistic view of the African tech-ecosystem.
In the Northern Africa competition, thirteen startups from Egypt were named winners, followed by finalists from Morocco and Tunisia. Similar results were seen in Southern Africa, where South African startups secured eleven awards, while the remaining titles went to entrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia.
Meanwhile, Eastern Africa saw Kenyan startups walk away with seven titles, as those from Uganda secured three, Ethiopia with two, and startups from Mauritius, Rwanda, and Tanzania also claiming awards. In Western Africa, Nigerian startups scooped up six awards, followed by three winners from Ghana. Additional winners came from Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Senegal, and Benin.
Central African startups had a strong presence this year, with innovators from Cameroon earning five titles and those from the Democratic Republic of Congo winning four. Winners from the Congo and Gabon were also recognised.
All 71 regional winners will now advance to the Continental Finals of the GSA Africa competition, where they will compete to be crowned an African winner. This final group of startups will join the GSA Grand Finale where they will have the opportunity to showcase their solutions alongside some of the world’s top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and ecosystem enablers.
African winners will have the exclusive opportunity to engage with the Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG), the competition’s dedicated investment partner. Through its GIIG Africa Fund and the GIIG Africa Foundation, the organisation aims to find, fund and grow globally relevant African innovation.
The announcement took place at the launch edition of GITEX Africa 2023 in Marrakech, Morocco, this week.
