Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [14/05/2020]

Kenyan business incubator Villgro Kenya has awarded $150 000 in grants to 12 innovative startups from East Africa with technologies and innovations that could help in testing, monitoring and managing aspects of the Covid-19 outbreak

Meanwhile, in a survey conducted by research company Consulta on behalf of Nedbank, almost 65% of SA firms reported that they had no turnover during the first five weeks of South Africa’s lockdown.

With the coronavirus (Covid-19) headlining news all over the world, Ventureburn has launched a regular daily roundup on the virus and how it is affecting Africa’s tech startup sector.

Those with any news releases relating to Covid-19 and Africa’s tech startup sector can send these to editor@memeburn.com.

Villgro Kenya has awarded $150 000 in grants to 12 innovative startups from East Africa to help fight Covid-19

Here then is the latest on the coronavirus and African tech startups:

New Yoco resource: SA fintech Yoco is expected to today launch its Yoco Small Business Recovery Monitor today, a collection of publicly available, small business transaction data, Business Report said in an article today. Yoco CEO Katlego Maphai said the tool can be used by entrepreneurs to benchmark their performance and help them in decision-making during current difficult times.

Lockdown bloodbath: Almost 65% of firms in a survey conducted by research company Consulta on behalf of Nedbank, had no turnover during the first five weeks of South Africa’s lockdown, Business Day reported in an article. More than half forced to temporarily reduce their staff through paid or unpaid leave. A further quarter have permanently retrenched workers. The survey covered 1000 small businesses with an annual turnover of R30-million or less. This, as The Times yesterday reported in an article that the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) forecasts SA’s official unemployment rate to hit 36.5% by the end of the year.

Senegalese innovation: Senegalese engineering students at a top engineering school in Dakar, have come up with a number of inventions such as automatic sanitiser dispensers and medical robots, Business Day reported in an article yesterday. Their inventions include a robot that can measure patients’ blood pressure and temperature.

Villgro Kenya’s $150k support: Kenyan business incubator Villgro Kenya has awarded $150 000 in grants to 12 innovative startups from East Africa with technologies and innovations that could help in testing, monitoring and managing aspects of the Covid-19 outbreak. In an announcement yesterday, Villgro Kenya said the 12 are: Kemri, Health-E-Net, Enzi Health, Flare, Neopenda Uganda, Maisha Technologies Ethiopia, Simbona Africa, Kijenzi and Medixus. Funding will also go to three entities locally manufacturing ventilators. Said Villgro Kenya CEO Robert Karanja (pictured above): “Innovations like these show the true resilience and grit communities have to fight health challenges in the African continent”.

Healthtech adds patient booking function: Cape Town based healthtech Ingress Healthcare now allows patients the capability to search for and book doctors and specialists on a search interface now available on its website. Last month the startup announced that it had has raised R6-million to help it to scale its platform that aims to distribute spare consulting rooms in hospitals and clinics to general practitioners and specialists (see this story). Ingress Healthcare CEO Dr Jason McArthur said April was the company’s highest revenue month to date, as a result of among other things, growing web traffic and the reluctance of SA patients to pursue telehealth consultations. “I think issues like lack of smart devices and data fees likely compound this effect in our population,” he added.

Read more: Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [13/04/2020]
Read more: Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [12/04/2020]
Read more: Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [11/04/2020]

Featured image: Robert Karanja (Facebook)