The second edition of Co-Creation Hub’s Pitchdrive tech tour, PitchdriveAsia, is set to commence on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. Ten selected startups utilising hardware and deep technology tools in their businesses will journey across five Asian cities during the two-week tech tour which will run until September 8, 2019.
The startups will be interacting with deep tech and hardware communities in Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China and Hong Kong, engaging in pitching events and seeking out collaborations, partnerships and potential investment opportunities to help them further grow and scale their businesses.
“We find that there’s a lot of interest from Asia in Africa and we believe there are opportunities for collaboration that could help strengthen the hardware and deep tech ecosystem in Africa,” says Damilola Teidi, Director of Incubation at CcHUB.
The startups were selected from a highly competitive pool of over 200 applications from across the continent.
The participating startups are: Moroccan safety IoT device company Casky; Rwandan smart transport solution company, AC Group; Nigeria’s Gricd Frij, a cold chain technology for transportation of healthcare and agricultural produce; Access Afya, a Kenyan primary healthcare social enterprise using technology to deliver affordable and effective health access; Ugandan CHIL AI Lab which leverages AI to improve cancer diagnostic services; and taeillo, a Nigerian furniture and design company leveraging mixed reality to improve customer experience.
In partnership with @GoogleforStartups, we are glad to announce the 10 startups that have been selected for #PitchDriveII🥳🥳
The deep-tech and hardware startups, from 7 African countries, will embark on a 2-week tour of 5 cities in Asia. #StoriesfromPitchDrive pic.twitter.com/HGNPdoBojy
— Co-Creation Hub (@Cc_HUB) July 24, 2019
Others include Enova Robotics from Tunisia which specialises in mobile robot development for security purposes; Flare, a Kenyan uber-like company which aggregates ambulance/emergency options for easy access; LIFI-LED, an Ivorian energy startup providing electricity and internet connectivity to difficult-to-access communities, and Nigeria’s Reliance HMO, which employs a consortium of tools to make health insurance accessible and affordable.
The PitchdriveAsia tour is proudly supported by Google For Startups, Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), ICT and Innovation ministry (Rwanda), German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), TechCabal, Keppel Capital, MainOne, Future Hub, Found8, and CoCoon.
