the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Lucricia Malunga, co-founder and ceo, J Brew Solutions (South Africa)
Startup Story
From a young age, Lucricia Malunga, the co-founder and ceo at J Brew Solutions in South Africa, has been passionate about transforming lives and building a business empire. Today, she is driven by a profound desire to create meaningful change and build a lasting business legacy. At just 16, she set out on a mission to establish a diverse portfolio of businesses that not only thrive across various industries but also make a positive impact on communities.
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Kemisola Bolarinwa
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Nextwear Technologies, the first wearable technology startup in Nigeria, developing technology worn close to the body to solve health issues.
Kemisola Bolarinwa is the founder of Nextwear Technologies, the pioneering wearable technology startup launched in Nigeria in 2020, and which now employs 9 people. She is a distinguished Robotics and Embedded System Engineer with over 13 years of exceptional tech expertise. Through Nextwear Technologies, Kemisola designs and develops innovative wearable technology that addresses health-related challenges. One of her notable contributions to the field is the invention of the groundbreaking wearable Smart Bra Cup Diagnostic Device, designed to detect the earliest stages of breast cancer—an unprecedented advancement in healthcare technology that has earned her global recognition and awards.
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Audrey Simbiso Chidawanyika, founder, Simbiso Jumpstart Initiative (Zimbabwe)
Startup Story
Audrey Simbiso Chidawanyika is the founder of Simbiso Jumpstart Initiative in Zimbabwe. She is a multidimensional pan-African leader, a globally celebrated mentor, and an award winning disruptive innovator. She is an innovation, strategy and transformation catalyst, a human capital development and business process re- engineering expert. A community and program management specialist, she has extensive experience working with NGOs, corporates and start-ups in Africa. She is passionate about accelerating human growth and has over ten years of experience working in the African Innovation, Development, Humanitarian and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. She has proven ability working with organizations exploring the role of entrepreneurship, technology, innovation and local knowledge in creating paths to sustainable development. Audrey is a Management Consultant and Strategist in Agile Scrum, Lean Six Sigma, Enterprise and Human Centred Design Thinking. She launched her business in 2019 and today it employs 12 people.
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Jessica Cumbana, project manager, Girls Can Code Club (Mozambique)
Startup Story
Jessica Cumbana is a 23-year-old Mozambican social entrepreneur and business analyst. She is the founder of the Elevate Youth Program, a project designed to empower young people and create development opportunities through training and programs. She is also the project manager of the Girls Can Code Club, a project developed with the aim of reducing the gender gap in the STEM field. A business administration degree holder, Jessica has always believed in using the transforming power of business to positively impact the world, having lived by this philosophy.
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Mamela Luthuli
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TakeNote IT, a South African cyber security business providing innovative IT solutions to clients
Mamela Luthuli is a well-known business leader, founder, entrepreneur, and CEO of Take Note IT in South Africa, which provides cyber security and innovative IT solutions to its clients. The business was established in 2007. Her purpose is “I am dedicated to protecting and keeping businesses and our people safe in South Africa and the rest of the world. I believe that technology and 4IR are only at the tip of a disruptive revolution that will create a new way of life for us all.” As a CEO, she guides her team of 65 young leaders to build a future for themselves the business, and the future of the country. Her contribution to the Cybersecurity and IoT industry has been realized through engineered products & services that secure digital and physical assets by proactively mitigating the risk of hacking, vandalism, and theft, through engineered cyber security and IoT solutions - helping to protect your business, protect your people, protect your reputation.
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Sasha Knott, CEO, Job Crystal (South Africa)
Startup Story
Sasha Knott, the CEO of Job Crystal in South Africa, started her career in IT and moved quickly in her career finding her passion for entrepreneurship and combining this with technology that works for the customer and often disrupts industries. Sasha’s current plan is to make job seekers lives easier while helping SMEs find talent fast and effortlessly! With Job Crystal’s new system called Crystal which combines RecTech, AI, machine learning and UX functionality that makes it easy to find the needle in the haystack for SMEs looking for talent. The vision is to make a dent in unemployment.
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Meghan McCormick, co-founder & ceo of OZÉ (Ghana)
Startup Story
Currently, Meghan is the Co-founder & ceo of OZÉ, a fintech company in Ghana that equips African entrepreneurs to make data-driven decisions to both improve their business performance and access capital. Meghan McCormick started her work as a Community Economic Development Volunteer in the Peace Corps in Guinea. During her service, she founded Guinea’s first business accelerator, Dare to Innovate, and scaled it to be French-speaking Africa’s most active small business accelerator. Meghan previously worked as an Innovation Strategist at Monitor Deloitte. She has an MBA from MIT and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
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DIYlaw, a legal technology company in Nigeria providing access to simplified, quality and affordable legal services
Funkola Odeleye is co-founder at DIYlaw in Nigeria, a legal technology company committed to empowering entrepreneurs through the provision of accessible and affordable legal services and free legal and business resources. She is a Cartier Women’s Initiative 2020 Fellow, 2019 Obama Africa Leader, 2019 Sub-Saharan winner and Global Finalist of the Entrepreneurial Award of the British Council Study UK Alumni Award, 2019 Africa 35 under 35 Laureate and a 2015 Innovating Justice Fellow of The Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law (HiiL). Funkola was recently recognized as one of five business leaders whose work significantly impacts their countries’ economies by the Reykjavík Global Forum. DIYlaw was founded in 2015 and today employs 19 people.
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Fade Ogunro
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Bookings Africa, a digital work platform connecting clients to skilled professionals in Africa
Fade Ogunro is the founder and ceo of BookingsAfrica.com, a pan-African digital work platform that enables African service providers, agencies and professionals digitize and monetize their skills by connecting clients efficiently and transparently to skilled professionals in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. As a leading technology platform, Bookings Africa is the only African freelance marketplace with a video call feature that allows clients and Brands connect with service providers from procurement, payment to service delivery which is rendered end-to-end, online. Fade has over 15 years of experience in media and technology, and most recently is also the Africa Chair for the Cherie Blair Foundation. She is dedicated to the pursuit of gender equality, digital gig work opportunities and African prosperity. Her vision is to produce self-sustainable and dignified work through digital work for over 5 million Africans.
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Fonyuy Videc Leinyuy, founder of GirlsTEK Global (Cameroon)
Startup Story
Fonyuy Videc Leinyuy is the founder of GirlsTEK Global in Cameroon. She is a techpreneur and an advocate for developing more girls in the field of technology. Her passion for educating and empowering young people, especially girls with digital skills, led to the creation of her organisation GirlsTEK Global in 2017.
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Sara Bouazza, founder of SOSdigital (Morocco)
Startup Story
For those small businesses in Morocco that are looking to digitize their product and service offerings, Sara Bouazza, founder of SOSdigital, has the solution. She has a range of virtual digital platforms that provide showcase opportunities for those clients who are trying to connect with key markets.
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Tshegofatso Moatswi, founder and Chief Executive Director, The Wire Media Agency (Botswana)
Startup Story
Tshegofatso Moatswi is the founder and Chief Executive Director of The Wire Media Agency, which is an Information and Technology Company in Botswana that offers workplace solutions. The Wire Media Agency was incorporated in 2013 and initially wanted to go the media route, hence the name, but as time went on moved towards the Information and Technology sector to offer disruptive and transformational technologies. The Wire Media Agency is a female and youth owned company in a male dominant industry and has 7 employees.
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Shamilah Damons, founder, Shammah Innovative Solutions (South Africa)
Impact Partner Content - Absa
Shammah Innovative Solutions is an information technology company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is an EME with 100% black women ownership and Level 1 B-BBEE rating. Shammah aims to provide digital solutions to small and large companies. Data is currently considered as any organisation's most valuable commodity, and Shammah’s goal is to use intelligent data processing techniques to provide integrated business solutions that deliver accurate, efficient and timely results.
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Dr. Dorcas Muthoni
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OpenBusiness Africa, a business transforming African enterprises through technology
Dr. Dorcas Muthoni is an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and founder of OpenBusiness Africa and OPENWORLD. She started her software business at the age of 24 and today it employs 50 people. She is greatly passionate about the transformation of African enterprises through technology. Dorcas is also the founder of the regional organization AfChix, a mentorship and capacity building initiative for women in computing across Africa. Globally, she has been involved and honored in technology leadership by the Internet Society (ISOC) as an Internet Hall Of Fame Global Connector, World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader (YGL), AnitaB Institute as a Change Agent Award Winner and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Spain as an Honoris Causa.
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Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho
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Future Software Resources Ltd (Futuresoft), a Nigerian technology provider scaling African enterprise.
Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho is a seasoned Information Technology professional with over 15 years of industry experience in Africa’s largest emerging economy. She has a deep purpose and focus on bridging the digital divide and transforming Africa by harnessing the benefits of digital. At home in technology from childhood, Nkemdilim is walking in her fathers’ footsteps as a second-generation Nigerian Information Technology expert.
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Kofo Akinkugbe
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Secure ID, Africa’s market leader in smart card technology and digital security.
Kofo Akinkugbe is a Nigerian innovator and technology market leader. This remarkable woman entrepreneur founded a company that today is recognised globally as a market leader in Africa's smart card technology and digital security industry.
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Nosisa Dhlomo, founder of Afrizulu Tech (South Africa)
Startup Story
South Africa needs vibrant, bright young women with ideas and entrepreneurial ventures that have the potential to transform the economic landscape of the country and bring with it a wealth of opportunities. Nosisa Dhlomo, founder of Afrizulu Tech is one such pioneering woman entrepreneur. She believes in building African female leadership through industry platforms and hubs to produce more female leaders.
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Gércia Sequeira, co-founder of Instituto de Tecnologias, Inovação e Serviços - ITIS (Mozambique)
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ITIS, creating local, innovative technology solutions for business and people.
Gércia Sequeira is a leading techpreneur in Mozambique and the CEO and co-founder of Instituto de Tecnologias, Inovação e Serviços - ITIS. As President of the ICT Association in Mozambique (AMPETIC) and Master trainer in business development service providers, as well as a trainer of various associations and single business owners concerning the use of ICT and Management tools, she is an influential tech voice in the country.
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Awards and Accolades
Emerging technology company, Niche Integrated Solutions, a100% Black women owned business, has won the Innocentrix South African Innovation League 2020 in the small enterprises category. The award was presented at a special ceremony held on 27 August 2020.
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Pretty Kubyane, co-founder of Coronet Blockchain (South Africa)
Startup Story
In Africa, hair is big business, from the supply chain of human hair products, to hair suppliers, salon businesses, and associated services. Pretty Kubyane and her husband co-founded Coronet Blockchain, a company looking to create an end-to-end transparent supply chain by harnessing the power of technology.
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