From agriculture to finance, through fashion and health: the winning startups of Startup Africa Roadtrip 2019 and 2021 introduced themselves in Turin and Milan thanks to BeEntrepreneurs APS and the Italian Embassy in Uganda.

Africa and innovation is a combination that’s going to mark the social, technological, and scientific future of humanity: and that’s why BeEntrepreneurs APS and the Italian Embassy in Uganda decided to bring the best startups from Silicon Savannah, the ecosystem including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, to Europe with the Startup Africa Roadshow.

The initiative gave 6 projects the opportunity to introduce themselves and meet the economic, financial, entrepreneurial, and industrial fabric of Turin and Milan, for a week focused on building connections thanks to networking and training opportunities, meetings, and sessions with potential investors. The Startup Africa Roadshow culminated with two major events open to the innovation communities, which took place on Tuesday, May 10 at the OGR in Turin and Wednesday, May 11 at the Cariplo Factory in Milan.

These startups were selected from hundreds of other businesses and were the winners of the 2021 “Next Generation Africa” and 2019 “Made in Africa” editions of Startup Africa Roadtrip. This non-profit initiative was launched by BeEntrepreneurs in 2017 to support innovation in developing countries and took place in Kampala, Uganda, at the end of a tech week of training by Italian volunteers. The program included mentoring and pitching sessions, “go to market” strategies, business modeling, and fundraising techniques. At the end of the program, an independent jury selected the best teams.

THE WINNING STARTUPS

Next Generation Africa 2021

Kimuli Fashionability (Mpigi, Uganda) creates unique clothing items produced by people with disabilities using recycled fabrics and plastic waste combined with traditional African textiles.

Phy2App (Nairobi, Kenya) developed an app to simplify economic and financial transactions between local agricultural producers and potential customers through processes based on trust and transparency.

Zofi Cash (Kampala, Uganda) developed a digital payment platform that allows employees to obtain an advance on their salary to prevent economic and financial emergencies, a very relevant problem in the country.

Marula Proteen (Kampala, Uganda) transforms the city’s organic waste into fertilizer through a biological process obtained thanks to insect larvae, which are in turn used as high-quality feed for livestock.

Made in Africa 2019

HerHealth (Kampala, Uganda) developed technological solutions to facilitate access to healthcare through a community-based approach focused on promoting health awareness in the most disadvantaged rural communities.

Gorilla Conservation Coffee (Bwindi, Uganda) is a social enterprise training coffee producers with the goal of improving yield and quality and safeguarding the natural habitat of the gorillas present in Bwindi National Park.

Over the past five years, the Startup Africa Roadtrip project has become an increasingly important reference point in promoting the link between the Italian and East African innovation ecosystems. All this thanks to 5 training programs, a database of over 1500 startups, more than 80 entrepreneurial teams formed, a network with more than 100 stakeholders, and a group of 40 young professionals capable of believing in innovation as a tool to create intercultural bridges between Italy and Africa in full harmony with the vision of the founders Andrea Censoni and Lorenzo D’Amelio.

The vision of BeEntrepreneurs APS is entirely fulfilled: “Thanks to Startup Africa Roadshow – emphasizes President Andrea Censoni – we have created connections, contaminations, and synergies between the African innovation system and the Italian one, it is a really important milestone for our association and our Startup Africa Roadtrip project. The event should have taken place already 2 years ago but the pandemic forced us to postpone it: the motivation of our group of 50 volunteers, coming from 3 continents, gave us the strength to resist and reorganize ourselves with the participation of over 100 entities including corporates, incubators, accelerators, investors, and startups.”

Cristina Toscano – Program Officer Fondazione Cariplo comments: «Innovation for Development, a program promoted by the Cariplo and Compagnia di San Paolo Foundations, supports Startup Africa Roadtrip and the 2022 Roadshow with a view to further encouraging cross-fertilization between the international cooperation sector to African development and innovation through networking and mutual contamination opportunities.”

“We are really happy,” says Mattia Voltaggio – Head of Joule, Eni’s School for Business – “to be part of this project that promotes new forms of international collaboration between Europe and Africa, where Eni operates. The African continent represents today an opportunity for change in the energy sector and shows us, through the entrepreneurial talents selected within ‘Next Generation Africa’, also to have developed a strong sensitivity towards female, inclusive, and sustainable entrepreneurship. We are sure that together we can start new development opportunities, the result of a mixture of skills, experiences, and enthusiasm.”

Enrico Mercadante – Specialist and Innovation Director South Europe at Cisco comments: “It was an honor to host a leg of the Startup Africa Roadshow at our cybersecurity co-innovation center in Milan. We have seen beautiful entrepreneurial ideas that are already mature enough to receive further investments and we have met talents that have given very interesting perspectives on how to imagine a more equitable and sustainable world, perfectly aligned with our intent to create, thanks to digital, a more inclusive future for everyone.”

«Startup Africa Roadtrip – says Laura Prinzi – CEO of B Heroes and Managing Director of lastminute foundation – is a project of great value for us: creating bridges between Italy and African countries with a view to mutual learning and valorisation of ecosystems of innovation of both contexts, contributes to the development of economic systems and, at the same time, brings to light a different and little-known narrative of the African continent, away from stereotypes and preconceptions and much closer to that living and vibrant context – which many countries Africans are expressing – and that can tell us a lot about the future.”

The Startup Africa Roadshow was made possible thanks to the supporters Last Minute Foundation, Eni Joule, DHH, Innovation for Development, Uber, and Primo Ventures.

Technical partners: AVSI, Cisco, Startup Wise Guys, BizPlace, 80/90 Estudio Creativo, The Innovation Village, Rifò, Digitonic, Kaleidoc, and Tech Garage.

Ecosystem partners: B Heroes, Oneday, B4I Bocconi for Innovation, E4Impact, Cariplo Factory, TAG – Talent Garden, Dpixel, Endeavor Italy, PoliHub Innovation Park, Feat. Ventures, OGR, Politecnico di Milano, Bocconi, SIT – Social Innovation Teams, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, and PlugandPlay.

Milan, April 19, 2022 – For the first time, the winning teams of “Next Generation Africa,” a program promoted by the BeEntrepreneurs association and the Italian Embassy in Uganda, are in Italy.

A week designed to build bridges between innovation ecosystems. From May 9 to 13, the Startup Africa Roadshow is set to welcome in Italy the best entrepreneurial talents from Uganda, shortlisted during the Tech Week of “Next Generation Africa” held in the Ugandan capital Kampala at the end of 2021. The project, managed by the Beentrepreneurs APS association, continues to support the growth of the most promising entrepreneurial teams from the “Silicon Savannah,” the innovation ecosystem composed of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, which in recent years has seen increasing dynamism with the presence of more than 100 tech hubs (including incubators, accelerators, and coworking spaces) and more than 700 million dollars of investments attracted by startups (Partech, 2021 report).

The wave of innovation that started in Kenya and is sweeping across East Africa has led to entrepreneurial bets like the 21 companies that the volunteers of the Beentrepreneurs association trained during “Next Generation Africa,” held in November 2021 following a call for startups that gathered over 300 applications. It was an intense week of training by Italian volunteers, including mentoring sessions, how to pitch, “go to market” strategies, business modeling, and fundraising techniques. The training culminated in a demo day, where an independent jury awarded the best teams.

Among them is Kimuli Fashionability, a Ugandan social impact startup that combines the challenge of recycling plastic waste with the support of 102 collaborators with disabilities. The project, launched by the young entrepreneur Juliet Namujju, a 25-year-old seamstress, arrives in Italy following her victory at “Next Generation Africa” along with other startups that made it to the top: Phy2App, an app which simplifies transactions between local agricultural producers and potential end customers; and Zofi Cash, a payment platform that allows employees to obtain an advance on their monthly salary, a widespread need in Uganda. Finally, it’s worth mentioning the team that won the special prize for sustainability, Marula Proteen, which transforms organic waste in Kampala into high-nutrient-value fertilizer through a biological process using insects, following the circular economy model.

They will be joined by some of the key players of the 2019 edition of Kampala Tech Week, whose Italian experience, scheduled for spring 2020, was postponed due to the outbreak of the pandemic: these include HerHealth, an all-female startup that develops health technology solutions to enable access to care in the most disadvantaged rural communities; and Gorilla Conservation Coffee, a project that contributes to the conservation of wildlife in Bwindi National Park while supporting local farmers.

And it is precisely this energy that the Startup Africa Roadshow will bring to Italy, with an intense program of stages between Milan and Turin marked by networking and training moments, field meetings with the most innovative experiences of our country, sessions of comparison with potential investors, and also a public event open to the innovation community.

The main event is scheduled for Wednesday, May 11 in Milan (limited seats, registration here), at the Cariplo Factory spaces in Base: an unmissable opportunity to get to know the entrepreneurial teams up close, but also for the presentation of the preview of the video report made by director Valerio Casale during the trip to Kampala of Startup Africa Roadtrip.

Launched in 2017 as the “Startup Africa Roadtrip” project, BeEntrepreneurs APS association’s flòagship program has grown over the years, becoming the reference point in promoting the meeting between the Italian and East African innovation ecosystems, with a track record that can boast 5 training programs resulting from as many calls for innovators fueled by a database of over 1500 startups, more than 80 entrepreneurial teams formed, and a network with more than 100 stakeholders.

Animating and supporting the projects of BeEntrepreneurs is a growing network of 40 young professionals who, sharing the vision of founders Andrea Censoni and Lorenzo D’Amelio, believe in innovation as a way to create intercultural bridges between Italy and Africa, discover new development opportunities, offering time, enthusiasm, and skills to create impact and shape the future.

“Startup Africa Roadtrip has reached its most complete realization,” emphasize Censoni and D’Amelio, co-founders of the initiative. “Two years after the first Roadshow, which was canceled due to the pandemic situation, our group is more united than ever. The motivation that drives us is given by an ambitious mission: to tell and bear witness that, precisely through innovation, new forms of international cooperation and collaboration between Europe and Africa are possible.”

Over the years, the association has been a catalyst for numerous realities that embrace this vision, building a network of important public and private partners, primarily the Italian Embassy in Uganda. “This year too, we have fully supported the ‘Startup Africa Roadtrip’ project aimed at Ugandan startups and innovators,” says Ambassador Massimiliano Mazzanti. “Training, innovation, and international partnerships are crucial to face the challenges of the future, especially in a young country like Uganda. The collaboration between young Italians and Ugandans within the project strengthens mutual knowledge and the historic friendship that binds our countries.”

The 2021/22 edition of “Next Generation Africa” took place with the significant support of Last Minute Foundation, Eni Joule, DHH, Uber. Also supporting the project are Innovazione per lo Sviluppo (a program of Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo), Primo Ventures, Fondazione AVSI, Cariplo Factory, Cisco, Startup Wise Guys, E4Impact, Talent Garden, and Startup Italia as a media partner.