20 African technology start-ups will participate in the Africa Excelle program. These include Exportunity GBC2 (Mauritius) and SmartOne (Madagascar). This program provides its beneficiaries with state-of-the-art training from digital experts. In addition, they will have the opportunity to network by approaching investors.
The 20 best start-ups in French-speaking Africa
Exportunity GBC2 and SmartOne are the two start-ups that will represent Mauritius and Madagascar respectively at L’Afrique Excelle. This program, which will take place from March 24 to 30 in Mali, brings together the 20 best technology start-ups in French-speaking Africa. Among those selected are LAfricaMobile (Senegal), TripAfrique (Ivory Coast), StarNew Mobile (Cameroon) and CityTaps (Niger), to name but a few.
About the start-ups Exportunity GBC2 and SmartOne
Exportunity GBC2 (Mauritius). Exportunity Global Trade hub is a virtual marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers. This is done by organizing and managing B2C (business-to-customer) and B2B (business-to-business) trade between African countries.
SmartOne (Madagascar). SmartOne is a data annotation service that provides high quality, human-interactive data to power artificial intelligence and machine learning projects.
“Africa Excels start-ups specialize in technology solutions for the African market designed to expand the reach and access of various services. These include technologies related to financial inclusion, transportation, healthcare, green technologies, data analytics and enterprise software,” the World Bank said.
Increase the visibility of start-ups
According to the institution, these start-ups are already marketing their products or services in one or more French-speaking African markets. In addition, they have strong sales and are well positioned for cross-border growth and expansion. The selected companies will have the opportunity to increase their visibility in addition to meeting with investors and experts. In addition, during this week, they will receive intensive training and mentoring. Subsequently, 10 start-ups will be selected. These will be presented to investors at the AfroBytes and VivaTech conferences. These will be held in Paris from 15 to 18 May 2019.
L’Afrique Excelle : a French version of XL Africa
L’Afrique Excelle is indeed a French-speaking adaptation of the XL Africa program. According to the World Bank, the objective is to foster a closer relationship between entrepreneurs in Anglophone and Francophone Africa. In addition, it aims to provide support to those living in less developed digital ecosystems. These are mainly from fragile countries such as the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Mali.
More than $11 million in fundraising
In addition, like the XL Africa program, L’Afrique Excelle has attracted many growing digital start-ups from Francophone Africa. In addition, many of them have already raised over $11 million in funding. They are also active in several African markets. This demonstrates the strong competitiveness of French-speaking African start-ups and their contribution to African digital economies. This is what Sebastian Molineus, Director of the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Department of the World Bank Group, said.
