Delegates at a Demo Africa technology conference in Nairobi in 2013. PHOTO | FILE
By MBUGUA NJIHIA
This year’s edition of DemoAfrica, the launchpad of
emerging technology and trends is happening over the next two days in
Lagos, Nigeria.
It was preceded by an investor meeting of the African
Business Angel Network, “a pan-African
non-profit association founded to support the development of early stage investor networks across the continent and to get many more early stage investors excited about the opportunities in Africa”.
non-profit association founded to support the development of early stage investor networks across the continent and to get many more early stage investors excited about the opportunities in Africa”.
This year saw the selection of a smaller number of
companies to make the stage for their six minute pitch. Kenya as per
expectation has good representation with retail and finance striking a
chord for the local cohort, perhaps a pointer to where the action is.
Shield Finance is providing low interest salary
advances via mobile money to the underserved community of employees in
private businesses, de-risking the employers and providing them a tear
free way to maintain productivity.
BambaPOS are empowering retail merchants to access
point of sale and inventory management automation from any android smart
device with an added benefit of connecting online stores to the same
brick and motor inventory.
ENT-Mobile are powering business processes using conversations from social and mobile platforms to derive quantifiable data.
Think of automation of customer service handling
thousands of simultaneous requests to get a feel of the value of their
first service offering.
LipaPlus is a provider of point of sale and
business data analytics aimed at improving the business operations and
day- to- day management of SMB’s a largely ignored demography
responsible a big percentage of daily sales.
BitSoko have taken a dive into remittances using
block chain technology to reduce the cost of peer to peer transfers as
well as service payments. This area has attracted a lot of attention
lately due to its disruptive potential.
Investors
Abacus is helping investors make smarter, faster
decisions by providing access to real time market data, news and
analytics; essentially taking the guesswork out of investing, a step up
from Wazua a community powered ecosystem that succeeded StocksKenya.
Insureafrika, through their online platform are
bringing transparency to the insurance industry currently controlled by
agents who often times fail to highlight fine print or give subjective
analysis of competing product.
They close the loop from comparison to actual policy purchase.
These are all high potential businesses and great
options for investment for both the novice and seasoned investor looking
to grow their technology portfolio.
Mr Njihia is CEO of Symbiotic | www.mbuguanjihia.com | @mbuguanjihia
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