Ten African tech startups have been chosen to take part in PitchDrive II, a deep tech 14-day tour of five Asian cities organised by Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) and Google for Startups.
Disrupt Africa reported in April the Lagos-based CcHub and Google for Startups had reprised their partnership for a second edition of PitchDrive after a successful first edition in 2017 when 14 startups participated in a three-week European tech hub tour that took in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zurich and Paris.
The Asian edition is taking 10 African hardware and deep tech startups on a tour of five Asian tech cities – Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong – to seek collaboration and investment, and received 200 applications from 20 African countries.
The selected startups include three from Nigeria, namely Gricd Frij, a cold chain technology for the transportation of healthcare and agricultural products; taeillo, a furniture and design company that leverages mixed reality to improve customer experience; and Reliance HMO, which employs a consortium of tools to make health insurance accessible and affordable.
Two Kenyan startups made the cut, namelty digital health startup Access Afya and on-demand emergency services platform Flare, while the rest of the touring group is made up of Moroccan safety IoT device company Casky, Rwandan smart transport solution company AC Group, Tunisian mobile robot development startup Enova Robotics, Ugandan AI-based diagnostics startup CHIL AI Lab, and Ivorian energy and internet access provider LIFI-LED.
The tour will see the selected participants engage with, learn from, and form beneficial relationships with the advanced technology ecosystems in the cities in the tour itinerary. The startups will also have the chance to explore funding opportunities, engage with manufacturers and find newer ways to scale their operations in their host countries and beyond.
It begins on August 21, with all the participants meeting at CcHub’s Design Lab in Kigali, Rwanda, for a two-day bootcamp, before they fly to Singapore to begin the trip. They will engage with corporate organisations such as Transsion Holdings, Dentsu Ventures, Google Korea, Samsung C & T, Yamaha, and Kepple VC.
