Three South African startups have been selected for the inaugural edition of the NINJA Accelerator in the country, which will help them accelerate strategic testing.
Disrupt Africa reported earlier this year the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had announced the expansion of its flagship NINJA Accelerator to South Africa, focusing on strategic collaboration and open innovation between South African startups and Japanese companies.
The JICA NINJA Accelerator in South Africa – Open Innovation Edition, run in partnership with Startupbootcamp AfriTech, sought promising startups to test commercial partnership potential with NEC XON, NEC Corporation’s majority-owned pan-African entity.
Three startups have now been selected to take part, who, in addition to proof of concepts and pilots with NEC XON, will be provided with mentorship, access to a global network of experts, and opportunities to engage with potential investors and strategic partners not just in South Africa, but also in Japan through a one-week roadshow scheduled for January 2025.
The selected ventures are Raphta, which has built an autonomous software and hardware platform to secure, monitor, and inspect critical infrastructure in the telecommunications, energy, railway, and water industries; Agrilogiq, which has developed advanced software and hardware to connect growers to their greenhouses; and Locstat, an AI technology platform that uses graph-based AI and data analytics to help organisations rapidly scale next generation data intelligence solutions such as real-time monitoring.
