The startups were chosen from a group of more than 550 applicants from 34 African nations. They are based in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and Rwanda.
As a part of the Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform, which was unveiled in December 2022, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has announced the selection of 10 startups to take part in the inaugural Qualcomm Make in Africa startup mentorship program.
These startups are creating ground-breaking goods in the fields of clean energy, agricultural technology, computing for education, geospatial predictive analysis, medical technologies, and electric vehicle innovations. Additionally, a number of startups have prominent female leaders.
The startups were chosen from a group of more than 550 applicants from 34 African nations. They are based in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and Rwanda. They were carefully chosen by a global jury based on a range of criteria, including technical aptitude, business considerations, and the potential for innovation and the creation of intellectual property.
The Qualcomm Make In Africa startups will be mentored in business strategy, engineering, intellectual property protection, and the use of cutting-edge connectivity, sensing, AI/ML, and other processing technologies for creative end-to-end systems solutions. The program, which is the first of its kind in Africa, aims to contribute to the continent’s tech startup ecosystem’s continued expansion.
The Qualcomm Make in Africa program, which was unveiled in December 2022, will offer shortlisted companies 1:1 mentorship with Qualcomm leaders on a regular basis to help startups realise their products.
It will also offer masterclasses on product management, pitch clinics, IPR, and hardware architecture. A finale demo day connecting startups with various industry leaders, venture capitalists, investors, and other accelerators will take place in December 2023 as the program’s culmination.
Sudeepto Roy, Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm Incorporated, said: “I’d like to commend and congratulate these ten startups for their creative solutions. “I am incredibly eager to learn about each of their unique problem domains and creative solutions. They have used their skills and creativity to address Africa’s current needs in areas like dependable access to clean energy, precision agriculture to conserve water and other resources, adaptations of electric transport for many last-mile needs, using AI and other innovations for accelerating disease pathology and treatment, and addressing energy-efficient, reasonably priced computing for the education market.”
“We will provide them with mentoring in the coming months in the areas of business growth, technological applications, and intellectual property law. We are honoured to be a part of their entrepreneurial journey and to witness their potential future influence in Africa.”
The Qualcomm Make in Africa mentorship programme is one of many projects we are working on closely with government and industry stakeholders in Africa as part of our new Africa Innovation Platform to support positioning African entrepreneurs and researchers to serve markets throughout the continent and realise their global ambitions.
According to Elizabeth Migwalla, Vice President and Head of Government Affairs (Middle East and Africa), Qualcomm International, Inc., startups based in Africa are in the best position to identify problems that are specifically African and that can be resolved using end-to-end system solutions and new business models. “We extend our congratulations to the shortlisted businesses and look forward to a successful partnership for innovation in the months to come.”