Here are the eight startups that will pitch for Series-A funding at VC4A summit

African startup funding platform VC4A has selected eight startups that it will showcase at next month’s Africa Early Stage Investor Summit in Cape Town.

The eight startups that make up this year’s VC4A Venture Showcase Series-A portfolio were selected after an earlier call — for disruptive African scale-ups looking to raise Series-A funding of between $250 000 and $5-million.

In a statement announcing the eight last Thursday (4 October) VC4A founder Ben White said the selected ventures represent “a new class of investment opportunity coming up across the African continent.

The 2018 VC4A Venture Showcase Series-A portfolio was selected from over 1000 applicants

“The selected ventures have strong revenues, are well positioned for regional and international expansion, and demonstrate important innovations that are disrupting industries like agriculture, healthcare, housing, transportation and finance,” said White.

He said the eight companies all provide a tech-intensive or innovation-based products or services that are currently available in one or more African markets.

This year’s portfolio was selected from over 1000 applicants, with a committee of 24 venture capital (VC) investors picking the eight.

The eight are set to pitch their businesses to investors — during the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit in Cape Town set to take place on 11 and 12 November. The portfolio will also pitch to corporates, investors and tech professionals at VC4A partner events AfricaCom and AfricArena.

The startups will also over the next weeks receive mentorship from top VC investors before taking up a one-week long residency in Cape Town, which will provide the eight startups with networking opportunities with mentors, peers and partners.

The 2018 VC4A Venture Showcase Series-A portfolio comprises startups developing solutions across the agritech, mobility, healthtech and fintech verticals. The eight selected ventures are:

AgroCenta (Ghana): AgroCenta uses its online platform to empower smallholder farmers and farmer-based organisations in rural farming communities to access a wider online market to trade fairly and equitably.

Fibre Lifestyle (Nigeria): Fibre partners with landlords around Nigeria that offer their homes to verified tenants looking to rent.

Gebeya (Ethiopia): Gebeya is a fast and secure online marketplace that connects top African IT experts with businesses seeking to develop new technology solutions.

GoMetro (South Africa): GoMetro allows any business or company to design and implement a managed transport service. The flexible cloud-based technology makes transport planning, tracking, paying and reporting much easier.

Invoiceworx (South Africa): Invoiceworx is a working capital financing company aiming to provide access to inventory and purchase order of financing for small businesses.

Nawah-Scientific (Egypt): Nawah-Scientific is the first, private, multidisciplinary research centre and platform in Egypt catering for natural and medical sciences.

Piggybank (Nigeria): Piggybank helps millennials curb their spending habits while improving their savings culture by automating deposits periodically, daily, weekly or monthly to reach a specific savings target.

Shezlong (Egypt): This online mental health platform allows patients to connect to licensed therapists via video call on mobile devices or the web.

Read more: VC4A in search for eight high-growth startups to showcase at investor summit