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Startup updates 🚀

Updated: Feb 11

Welcome back to our startup updates page! Every quarter, we send out a newsletter to all members of the community, with all of the highlights of what we've been up to, as well as news and milestones from our brilliant cohort of founders.


You can check this page for all of the new updates - it is refreshed with every new release.


If you don't currently receive our newsletter, but would like to, please send us an email here.


Please reach out to us if you'd like to get in touch with any of the teams - we'd be more than happy to make the intro!


Q1 2025 Updates:


Lagos pitch winner  Marketplace


Introducing the winners of our Lagos pitch day, the B2B marketplace that is looking to overhaul SME procurement in Nigeria. 30% of SME failure in the country is due to product sourcing issues, and Feegor's platform tackels this by connecting suppliers directly to retailers. Since their OxFounders pitch, Feegor came first in Wema Bank’s Hackaholics competition (one of the country’s most important early-stage competitions), and bagged a ₦50m prize. Keep your eyes out for this one 👀.


Almaty pitch runner-up Smart cities


Our Almaty runner-up, Qala AI, has made strides since our event in April 2024. Along with winning prestigious national startup competitions in Kazakhstan and at GITEX in Dubai, the company, which has a B2G 'resilient city platform' as well as a new B2B geo-recommendation product, is now working with the Almaty and Abu Dhabi city administrations on projects.


São Paulo pitch winner  Deeptech, Healthtech, Social impact


Since our last update, the exceptional team at Gen-t have had more big news: they've reached a $2m partnership with US pharma giant Regeneron, which will allow them to sequence a further 20,000 genomes and so become the largest Latin gene bank by the end of 2025.


Mexico City pitch runner-up Travel Tech, Sustainability


Since our last update, Baboo closed an amazing 2024 with $4m of sales, going beyond forecasts, and has now launched an AI trip-builder to simplify interactions between customers and tour suppliers.


Cape Town pitch 3rd place Deeptech, clean power, hardtech


Introducing one of our Cape Town winners, HYENA (Hydrogen Energy Applications). The team, all of whom have a strong engineering background, have pioneered the POWER POD, the company's diesel generator replacement powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology. The power pod uses LPG as its hydrogen carrier, meaning no hydrogen distribution network is needed for the product to run at scale. Since our event in November 2024, the team have conducted a real-world POC, charging electric cars in Cape Town for a full week's worth of commuting. As they approach commercialisation, they look to partner with companies who rely on diesel generators, in order to complete pilot projects.


Cape Town winner Deeptech, cleanpower


Meet SeaH4, the Cape Town startup that generates biofuels from farmed algae, with a focus on bioLNG. The startup has been (excuse the pun) making waves, including being selected as one of the nominees for the 2024 Earthshot Prize.


Nairobi winner Fintech


Introducing our Nairobi winners, Jahazii, whose product provides on-demand salary advances for formal workers in Kenya and across Africa. Since launching in June 2024, they already have an $80k salary advance pipeline with 6 employers, and are now looking to raise $200k SAFE to reach $20k in MRR.


Cape Town runner-up Edtech


Our runners-up from South Africa, the charismatic team at Alpha Tower has built an e-learning suite for rural and underserved classrooms that functions without internet connectivity. The 'tower' is a portable standalone micro-server, which enables students to connect to a personalised Moodle suite in the classroom without the need for internet access. The company is expanding to rural schools across South Africa.


9) Werover 

Istanbul pitch winner  Cleantech


Since our last update, Werover (wind turbine health monitoring device) have reached their latest milestone: being installed in over 400 turbines across Europe! That number is set to increase to over 2,000 by the end of 2025. Having now relocated its HQ to London, the startup has also been invited onto the 5th cohort of TotalEnergies' On Accelerator, which began in January.


Lagos pitch runner-up  Consumer, marketplace, e-commerce


Our runners-up from Lagos, MyFoodAngels, are tackling huge 50% post-harvest loss rates in Nigeria through their subscription model, which brings surplus produce from farmers directly to urban consumers. The company, which is bootstrapped, has hit $1.4m in GMV, as well as over 20,000 fulfilled orders which have brought in $170,000 of revenue.


11) Twiva

Nairobi runner-up Martech


Coming in 2nd place as well as winning the audience favourite vote in Nairobi, Twiva allows SMEs to better market and sell their goods online by connecting them to influencers and creators through its matching platform. The startup is looking to target $4.8m in revenue for 2025, and is raising a $2.5m Seed round.


12) Scale

Nairobi 3rd place Procurement


Scale is an e-procurement platform that connects buyers with pre- vetted suppliers of Goods and Services. They look to cut costs by digitising procurement, forgoing the need for extensive paperwork and outdated ERPs. The experienced team is looking to complete its raise of $250,000 as a SAFE note.


Lagos pitch 3rd place  Healthtech


Coming 3rd and winning our audience vote in Lagos, the passionate team at Sussflow Reusable is looking to end Nigeria's dependence on single-use menstrual products that have harmful effects both on women's health and the environment. They have made sustainable, reusable period products, and are in the process of rolling them out across communities in Nigeria.



Q4 2024 Updates:


Istanbul pitch winner Cleantech


Since our last update, the team at Werover (wind turbine maintenance) have made huge steps. They’ve 6x’d their paying customers, are delivering on 300 pilot projects representing a $3.4m sales pipeline, and are now ready to raise their next, Seed, round of capital at $800k.


Mexico City pitch runner-up Travel Tech, Sustainability


Baboo (sustainable adventure travel) has had huge success since our event - they’ve been officially certified as a B Corp, they’ve 5x’d their sales compared to last year, achieving $2.5m worth of sales so far in 2024, and all of this has been bootstrapped! They’re now looking for a strategic partner to invest $500k into the business, aiming for a strong exit in 5-7 years.


São Paulo pitch winner Deeptech, Healthtech, Social impact


Introducing the brilliant winners of our Brazil competition, the gene bank startup Gen-t. The team is using Brazil’s uniquely diverse gene pool to build Latin America’s largest gene bank, with huge potential applications in drug discovery and development. Since our event, Gen-t has received $400k in federal grant funding, started raising its $1.5m Seed round (500k already closed), and is also a finalist at this month’s Startup World Cup in SF.


Bengaluru pitch winner Cleantech, sustainability


Changing the game of how companies in India and emerging markets handle ESG, the team at Breathe ESG is fired up to continue expanding in their home market. They’ve secured key partnerships with consulting firms, expanded their network of enterprise customers (including WeWork India), have 465% YoY growth on track for 2024, and are now raising $1.5m of seed investment.


Bengaluru pitch runner-up Deeptech, AI


The team at Agentanalytics (based in T-Hub, the world's largest incubator) is on the verge of releasing their brand new enterprise technology, Vector Lake. While 90% of the world’s enterprise data resides in traditional Data Lakes, most GenAI applications rely on vector databases which requires data to be loaded to Databases. Vector Lake changes the game by allowing companies to use their existing Data Lakes and build GenAI applications on top of it, eliminating the need for vector databases. It's the world’s first Agentic framework that empowers enterprises to build GenAI applications directly on top of their Data Lakes, bypassing the need for vector databases entirely.


São Paulo pitch runner-up Cleantech, Sustainability


Umbloco makes bricks using its unique technology from 100% recycled plastic and polymers, which it then uses to build homes and commercial properties. Since launching this year, the startup has already built stores for leading Brazilian retailers including havaianas, chillibeans and cvc. Lucas and Fabio will also be pitching at WebSummit Lisbon in November.


7) Bel

São Paulo pitch third place Proptech


Built by founders who already have successful exits in the Brazilian proptech sector, Bel is looking to shake up the rentals and listings market in the country. Its platform distributes and manages properties for owners while providing instrant listings to real estate agencies and agents. The team are now on track to hit their 10-months-since-launch target of 300 new properties per month with a revenue of R$300k/mo, soon expanding to São Paulo in addition to their home city of Rio de Janeiro. They are currently raising their Seed round.


Bengaluru pitch audience favourite  Mobility, Sustainability


This Bangalore startup connects travellers to each other in order to split taxi fares. Since launching earlier this year, they've already hit 29,000 users, are now expanding to Delhi and Mumbai, and are gearing up to start raising $250k of investment in November.


Mexico City pitch Deeptech, AI


The 'creative LLM' startup - which generates ideas that are 80% more creative than ChatGPT (measured with Ocsai - Open Creativity Scoring tool) - has received funding to relocate to Bilbao, Spain and enter the European market. It's currently raising a €350k pre-seed round, led by Startup Wise Guys, with €200k already committed.


Mexico City pitch Mobility


Founder Javier used his multi-year experience as a director in the automotive industry to launch Mazmobi, a B2B 'Vehicle as a service platform' that allows customers to find vehicles quickly and easily with flexible subscriptions, reducing cost, time, and emissions. They've recently reached 300% YoY growth (bootstrapping), have presence in 29 airports and 15 cities in Mexico and are looking for investment to grow even faster. They plan to cover every major Mexican city by the end of the year, with a view to international expansion over the next years.


Almaty pitch winner Healthtech, Community, Parenting


A community advice and medical app for new parents that has taken Kazakhstan by storm, the startup has now expanded to 10 countries and has just launched its paid subscription service. The team are opening their pre-seed round for commitments in November.


Tashkent pitch third place Edtech


This Kyrgyz startup is taking a fresh look at Edtech by focusing on the teachers rather than the students. Its AI-powered tool assists teachers with creating interactive lesson plans, tracking student progress, and facilitating teachers' own professional development. It is also adapted for schools in the CIS market. Since launching in March, it's grown to 17,000 users, with over 56,000 pieces of lesson content generated. The team are currently undertaking expansion to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as well as launching their subscription model.


Istanbul pitch   Fashion, Sustainability


This Swiss startup (pitched at our Istanbul event) wants to break apart the fashion industry's returns problem, where a high 30% return rate for online orders leads to high costs and extra emissions. It has built a unique 3-D virtual try-on software that reduces 22% of returns and built PoC collaborations with leading brands including Ralph Lauren, on, and the Swiss Army, alongside its existing customers goated, Blackhope, BGBG, and others. The team is now ready to raise its next round of capital at Seed, and is on the lookout for partnes and investors with interests and expertise in the industry.


14) Doro

Almaty pitch  Consumer, Cosmetics


Doro provides an AI-enabled personalised skincare solution. Customers scan their face, answer questions, and receive recommendations for optimal products best-suited to their skin. The startup has already seen enormous success, and has now reached $10,000 MRR in September, whilst relocating to the US and taking part in an accelerator programme. It's targeting $500,000 MRR by this time next year.



 
 
 

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