Two South African startups, Agrilogiq and Locstat, have officially become NEC XON vendors at the culmination of the first JICA NINJA Accelerator to be held in South Africa.
Disrupt Africa reported last 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 invited promising startups to test commercial partnership potential with NEC XON, NEC Corporation’s majority-owned pan-African entity. JICA’s overall aim is to study collaboration models between local startups and Japanese companies, and contribute to local startup ecosystem development through private sector innovation.
The first edition of the three-month programme has now concluded, with Agrilogiq and Locstat completing their proof-of-concepts (PoCs) with NEC XON, and being selected as vendors. The two startups headed to Tokyo from January 19-25 to meet with decision-makers at NEC Corporation’s main headquarters to deepen their relationship, and also relationships with other Japanese corporations and investors.
With Agrilogiq, the PoC confirmed the startup’s alignment with NEC’s agricultural initiatives that address food security in Africa and synergies with international partners, paving the way for potential integration and scaling through NEC’s Africa projects.
As for Locstat, the PoC revealed that the startup’s platform enhances NEC systems with seamless data flow and offers strategic synergies in smart infrastructure and urban development using analytics and enhanced monitoring capabilities. Both parties agreed to conduct further testing to validate scalability and explore integration with larger platforms and data sets.
“The fact that this project resulted in tangible outcomes such as letters of intent and onboarding as official vendors, demonstrates that more support is needed to validate strategic fit and take corporate-startup collaboration beyond mere introductions. This was just a first step towards helping unlock the true potential of strategic value and returns for corporates and startups alike. I am hopeful that similar programmes will be born from this in the ecosystem,” said Yannick Gayama, managing director and head of programmes at Double Feather Partners, the Japan-based Africa-focused VC and consulting firm leading the project on behalf of JICA.
