Meet the 40 startups selected for DEMO Africa 2012

The final 40 startups for the first ever DEMO Africa conference have been announced. The 40 entrepreneurs chosen for the conference have gone through “three rigorous screening processes with the final vetting and adjudication done by a pan-African panel of judges comprised of entrepreneurs, VCs and Academia,” say the event organizers.

The conference, which is part of the global DEMO conference series, touts itself as a “launchpad for emerging technology and trends”. The event believes that noteworthy startups are being created in Africa, developing real-world solutions, worthy of investment, global attention as well as becoming part of the global startup ecosystem.

“We are excited to be getting on the road for this first African Innovation Tour to meet with the entrepreneurs who are creating tomorrow today,” said DEMO Africa executive director Harry Hare. “Each stop on our tour provides a unique opportunity to ignite the DEMO Africa community and we are looking forward to bringing together local investors, VCs, media, as well as potential demonstrators for the upcoming DEMO Africa conference.”

According to the finalist announcement:

A total of 500 applications were processed in lead to this event. These were then short listed to 150 ventures before a selection of the final 40 was made. The ventures cover five categories including Mobile Technology, Social Media, Consumer Products, Cloud Services and Enterprise Technologies. South Africa and Kenya take a big chunk of the final 40 with Ghana and Nigeria coming in a close second. Other countries represented included Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

The DEMO Africa event will be at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, 24th to 26th October 2012 where all the selected startups will demo their products.

Here is an overview of the selected startups provided by VC4Africa.

	Balefyre is the sole supplier of it’s patented USSDx – USSD over IP server and emDial application.	Earl Joseph	South Africa
	Crowdpesa allows merchants to manage customer notifications and rewards on an intuitive dashboard.	Christian KAKOBA	Kenya
	dash2do is an online service for errand runners, private drivers, cash delivery, travel bookings and more.	Samuel Wanjohi	Kenya
	djoss.tv is a social TV platform that lets TV viewers everywhere discuss around their favorite TV shows, in real-time.	Ndjientcheu Ngandjui Patrick	Cameroon
	eLimu is an Android application for children in the Kenyan Primary School education system.	Nivi Mukherjee	Kenya
	Eskimi is a mobile social network to meet new people in Africa.	Vytautas Paukštys	Nigeria
	Evly is a Software-as-a-Service that can be used by organisations to “constructively engage” their stakeholders.	Eric Edelstein	South Africa
	ExpenZa takes the hassle out of expense tracking by automating as much of the process as possible.	Wim Morris	South Africa
	Firestring will find the right information for you when you need it.	Alison Jacobson	South Africa
	Framework One is a Cloud-Based bespoke development and business process automation using CloudCore.	Stephan Pienaar	South Africa
	Gigham makes it easy to discover, promote & monetize events.	George Gally	South Africa
	Hewani™ Retail enables consumers to shop for goods and services.	Thuo Herbert	Kenya
	iPay is an innovative payments processing solution and payment gateway for Africa.	Philip Nyamwaya	Kenya
	Kivuko is an online shopping gateway, enabling vendors to sell and deliver products directly to customers.	Amiri Mziray	Tanzania
	KKYB is an online platform that crowdsources writing and design services online.	Kekeli Buckner	Ghana
	Kuza is a mobile, location-based business platform for feature phones.	Pieter Nel	South Africa
	Kuzima allows you as a consumer to shame and praise companies that provide you with services.	Michael Ocansey	Ghana
	Kytabu is a texbook subscription application on a low cost tablet.	Tonee Ndungu	Kenya
	Lipisha enables small business owners to automatically process non cash payments and micropayments.	Martin Kasomo	Kenya
	Maliyo Games makes interactive multimedia content, published for web and mobile distribution.	Hugo Obi	Nigeria
	Meka is the industry innovator in comparison shopping, price and product reference.	Mugume Collins	Uganda
	m-KAZI is a mass market job search application accessed by mobile phone and online.	Nancy Wang	Kenya
	Mlouma is a web and mobile service that allows farmers and agribusiness to make decisions.	Aboubacar Sidy Sonko	Senegal
	Mobiflock, we want children to have all the benefits of a mobile phone, while still staying safe.	Vanessa Clark	South Africa
	mPawa is a mobile job matching application developed for the blue collar recruitment sector of Africa.	Maxwell Donkor	Ghana
	MPAYER is a mobile and web application that enables businesses to manage income and expenses.	Stella Njoki	Kenya
	MPrep helps kids learn, review, compete and collaborate through accessible mobile applications.	Kosgei Isaac	Kenya
	MTI offers the newest level in IT Support. With this App, you can get support no matter where you are in the world.	Sean Venter	South Africa
	mTRACKER is a menu-driven mobile application that runs on Series40 and Android platforms.	Mwema Jacob	Kenya
	mVerified is a verification tool that can be accessed online or via mobile.	Patrick Innovator	Kenya
	MyOrder is the easy way to order from shops around you for delivery or pick-up.	Hilda Moraa	Kenya
	OzinboPay is a mobile payment gateway that enables merchants within West Africa.	Sam Paapa Opoku	Ghana
	People Input is an African APPs store targeting general public and businesses.	Serigne Barro	Senegal
	Prowork is a project management and team collaboration app.	Francis Onwumere	Nigeria
	Qabila is a media content creator that capitalizes on crowdsourcing and digital media.	Perihan Abou-Zeid	Egypt
	Rasello helps businesses manage better consumer communication via SMS.	Natalino Mwenda	Tanzania
	SasaAfrica, an e-commerce platform that connects craftswomen in developing countries.	Ella Peinovich	Kenya
	SkillPod Media is a South African based game solutions provider.	Mark van Diggelen	South Africa
	TaxTim is an online virtual tax assistant who asks you simple questions in plain language.	Evan Robinson	South Africa
	Virtual Bank is a payment service for those without credit cards, bank accounts and those who want a cheap alternative.	Tawanda Kembo	Zimbabwe