For the First Time, 3 Startups Emerge Winners of the $50k MEST Africa Challenge

Three startups have emerged victorious in this year’s MEST Africa Challenge.

Founded by Meltwater Foundation, the MEST Africa Challenge is organised to showcase some of Africa’s most innovative early-stage startups. The competition promises equity funding as well as media spotlight for winners.

Supported by Microsoft, this year’s competition brought together a gathering of tech industry players to witness some of Africa’s most innovative startups.

At this year’s final, Oze (Ghana), WayaWaya (Kenya) and Snode Technologies (South Africa), all emerged as winners. For winning, each startup will receive $50,000 equity funding from MEST Africa. All three companies will also get $25,000 credit support from Microsoft, the competition’s partner.

Meanwhile, the innovations offered by each of these startups are quite thrilling.

For instance, Ozé is an analytics platform for small business owners. The Ghanaian startup allows business owners keep track of their finances, capturing both the inward and outward flow of money. Ozé goes further to provide them with insights and business advice.

Snode Technologies, on the other hand, is into cybersecurity. Snode says it leverages “mathematics to analyse data in real-time at scale”. The startup develops digital security products baked with analytics that help to identify and fight cyber threats. Presently operating in South Africa, Snode aims to go global under the next three years.

While WayaWaya, the Kenyan startup, is a fintech startup. The company describes itself as a “digital banking platform” that integrates with a user’s regular bank account and provides them with multichannel access to financial services. Users can borrow money, save money, make domestic and international payments and use the platform as a kind of POS for physical transactions.

Usually, only one team is expected to win the MEST Africa Challenge. Last year, Nigeria’s Accounteer took top place at the finals.

However this year, the organisers decided to award the prizes to the three exceptional teams. MEST Africa said:

The judges were impressed with different elements of each of the winners and at the same time saw clear areas where MEST could add value to help them reach the next level.

Congratulations to all three winners.