Denis Opudo
On 25th January, the Startup.Info revealed the winners of this year’s Startup of the year Africa Competition. Startup.info was founded with an objective of promoting startups. They mentioned the names of the winners in a ceremony that was held in Casablanca.
Startup.Info organized the second edition of the competition with a helping hand from major International Organizations partners like OCP, QWANT, PwC, ENGIE, Labs-NS-Avocats, Royal Air Maroc, Growth Experts, Halmarcon Group and more than 70 media ecosystem partners.
On top of the list, the 2018 startup of the year award went to HydroIQ . It is a Kenyan Virtual Water Network Operator. The QWANT public choice award, on the other hand, went to Ecodome. It is a Moroccan startup that deals with the production of eco-touristic domed housing from natural soils.
Grace Agricole de Cote D’Ivoire, a startup established to enhance production of rice in Ivory Coast became the third winner of the day. It won the OCP Agrithech Special Prize. On the energy sector, Nigerian Peachwater Consulting clinched the ENGIE’s energy startup of the year. Their Power stove, a clean cookstove that generates electricity with less biomass fuel was the source of this award.
The Diaspora was not left out as well. Semoa, a French company, was awarded an African Diaspora award presented by RAM for its sole role in recommending E-commerce in Africa. Other special awards were also given out; France’s Thea which is an app that connects patients to doctors won the Holmarcon’s special award. Priyo which is a South African Startup won PwC jury award for developing a portable and smart digital solar computer lab.
Ending the list of the awards was Project Alha, a Madagascan Startup, which was awarded the Community Manager of the year prize. The winners of the competition will be expected to walk home with prizes ranging from 10,000 Euros Visibility Pack to 10,000 Euros in cash. This is in addition to other prizes given by the Startup.Info and its partners.
