FAST-S22

Capsa Technology

We are essentially solving three key problems for businesses in Africa:

1) Access to competitive financing for businesses, especially SMEs – only 1 in 10 SMEs are able to access funding in Africa based on World Bank estimates
2) Illiquid assets in the books of businesses – most SMEs have a large chunk of invoices (receivables) on their books which are highly illiquid and will typically have to wait between 45 days to 60 days to convert these invoices to cash
3.Limited safe asset classes for fund/asset managers to trade/invest in – most fund providers in Africa have not been able to properly define the right framework to fund SMEs in the continent due to their perceived high risk

To solve these, we have built an Exchange/platform that allow businesses (especially SMEs) to convert their receivables to tradable assets for Fund Managers to buy. It unlocks liquidity for the SME, and creates a new asset class for Fund Managers to invest in

SILQU

80% of landlords and property owners in AFRICA use traditional ways to manage their rental properties. The question is, Can their rental business afford not to use technology? We have the solution. SILQU, an advanced USSD/Web/App based PropTech platform that help landlords, property managers and other property owners streamline Rent management, tenant management and facility management, with an inbuilt accounting platform with superior efficiency and ease, IN A SMART WAY.

Taimba

Problem: The chaotic agricultural supply chain results in farmers being short changed by brokers, 50% post-harvest wastage, and USD30 billion lost by Africa smallholder farmers resulting in overpriced farm produce.
There Exists No Formal Agriculture Supply Chain Across Sub-Saharan Africa.
This results in a Shortage of Quality Affordable Fresh Produce In Urban Cities as Well as in Rural Towns
Solution: East Africa’s First Data-Driven Food Supply Chain Platform.
We have developed an online B2B platform that directly connects farmers to informal green grocers. By digitizing the value chain, we cut wastage, offer farmers better pricing and deliver fresh affordable products to informal green grocers.
Potential:
Urban traders, informal grocers and institutions in Nairobi alone have more than 120,000 whose average basket size is USD50.
In Kenya alone we have at least 850,000 smallholder farmers.

K-12

The current K-12 education system is outdated globally; it does not prepare children for the digital era, and it lacks automation that eliminates paperwork, enabling teachers to spend less time on routine tasks and more time with their learners. Schools are struggling to merge education with technology, and it’s challenging to maintain learners’ interest and attention for long enough to teach stem subjects and new topics effectively. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on schools due to a lack of effective K-12 ed-tech solutions and the internet. Solutions:The K-12Plus App is an offline-first app and syncs properly on a 0.5 Mbps connection. It employs teacher bots and virtual and augmented reality “mixed technologies” to deliver universal K-12 education offline. The app revolutionizes the K-12 education system with high-tech technologies to aid pedagogical and administrative processes, thus transforming schools into “SMART” schools and enabling schools to achieve their goals more efficiently.

Pade HCM

We are building Africa’s largest database of verified earners, via end-to-end HR and Payroll technology. Pade is a business optimization product that helps simplify, automate and efficiently execute HR and administrative tasks for businesses in Africa. From Employee Information Management, Leave, Loans & Salary Advances, Procurement, Performance Management and Payroll, to leveraging AI for HR Analytics.
Our vision is to provide these services for companies all over the continent, with a big portion of our focus being on small to medium scale businesses, however, our software is also designed to help large corporations who want to be nimbler with managing HR and admin tasks. Our strategy is to deploy software that is quick, nimble and easy to use without rigid workflows for a dynamic range of businesses. Users can have as little as 10 staff to several thousand staff.

VAIS

We are developing a comprehensive AI-powered platform called FarmGate that covers the full spectrum of services needed for precision agriculture (anomaly detection, irrigation scheduling, yield estimation, etc.) as well as novel field scouting application. It exploits the available peta-bytes of remote sensing data from free and commercial satellite constellations such as Sentinel and Planet. FarmGate also facilitates integration with emerging ag field sensing technologies such as IoT field sensors (when available) and features a cloud system that can handle millions of subscribers while keeping operational costs low.
The platform optimizes all ag inputs to reduce water and nutrients waste, thus creating a positive impact on both the environment and farmers. It also provides a scalable and economically adaptive solution that can be seamlessly utilized all over the world in both developed and developing countries without any specific h/w requirements.