Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) has announced the winners of the third edition of the African App Launchpad Cup, aimed at supporting African tech startups in the field of digital applications and game development.
ITIDA, the executive arm of the Egyptian Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT), founded to spearhead the development of the country’s IT industry, partnered IBM for this year’s edition of the competition, which is part of the “African App Launchpad” presidential initiative which aims at developing the skills and abilities of 10,000 of Africa’s youth, in addition to offering support to 100 African startups in the field of digital applications and game development.
The competition included two tracks – application development and game development – with up to US$72,000 worth of prizes presented to the winners. IBM will help startup companies and next-generation developer communities access a range of its innovations around data and AI with IBM hybrid cloud strategy.
In all, 245 startups from 16 African countries applied to participate in the final version of the competition, with 50 reaching the first qualifying round and 28 making it to the final. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat witnessed via video-conference the announcement of the results.
Six startups won the top three spots in the two tracks of the competition, receiving a total cash prize of US$48,000. The other teams that made it to the finals won a cash prize of US$1,000, offered by MCIT.
In the App Development track, Africa Innovation Technology Group from Cameroon won first place; Boxconn Technologies from Ghana and Qme from Egypt won second place; and Arete Consulting from Egypt won third place. In the Game Development Track, Dimension11 from Nigeria won first place and Alkemiza from South Africa won third place.
