Kenyan based B2B e-commerce startup Sokowatch is among the winners of the AppsAfrica Innovation Awards 2020. The awards celebrates the best startups in mobile and tech from across Africa.
Sokowatch, which has created a platform that connects merchants directly to local and multinational suppliers won in the e-commerce category beating One Kiosk Africa (Nigeria), HoBeei Freecycling (Nigeria), Vodabucks (South Africa), and Pricepally (Nigeria).
Sokowatch enables informal retailers to order products at anytime via SMS or mobile app, and receive free same-day delivery to their store.
Since launching in 2016, and raising a $2 million seed round in 2018, the startup has expanded within Kenya and into Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It currently has a network of over 16,000 shops in nine major cities across East Africa.
Other winning African startups include 54gene (Nigeria), that won the Disruptive Innovation Award, Envisionit Deep AI (South Africa / UK) won the HealthTech Award Carry1st for Gebeta (South Africa) won the Best African App while Sendmarc (South Africa) won the Cybersecurity Award.
Luno (United Kingdom/South Africa) won the Blockchain Award, myFanPark (South Africa/Nigeria) the Media & Entertainment, Xhuma (South Africa), the EdTech Award ComX (Nigeria) the Agri & FoodTech Award, Beyonic (Uganda) the FinTech Award
Envisionit Deep AI (South Africa / UK) and Kobo360 (Nigeria) won the Social Impact and Mobility Award respectively.
“This year saw a large increase of entries from sectors currently booming due to the effects of the pandemic, including HealthTech, Edtech, Gaming, Fintech, eCommerce and many Covid19 related entries with many great investment opportunities across the continent.” Andrew Fassnidge Founder of AppsAfrica.com said.
The winners will join Africa Tech Summit in 2021 connecting with tech leaders, corporates, and investors at next year’s African and European Summits.
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