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Rwandan Startup Among ‘Made in Africa’ Best Innovations


SLS Energy, a local startup focusing on recycling lead-cell batteries is among the top 10 African startup companies selected to benefit from the inaugural seven month equity-free mentorship program by tech giants Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

SLS Energy was also among the top five finalists for the inaugural Hanga Pitchfest.

The 10 selected startups, according to organizers, are developing innovative products in clean energy, agricultural technology, computing for education, geospatial predictive analysis, medical technologies, and innovations utilizing electric vehicles.

SLS Energy joins prominent startups from across the continent including in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.

“They were selected from a pool of more than 550 applicants from 34 African countries. They were carefully selected by a global jury based on a variety of qualifications including technical capabilities, business factors, and potential for innovation and intellectual property generation.”

Beneficiaries are expected to receive equity-free mentorship in business planning, engineering, intellectual property protection, and the application of advanced connectivity, sensing, AI/ML and other processing technologies for innovative end-to-end systems solutions.

The program is the first of its kind in Africa and is designed to add to the continued growth of the continent’s technology startup ecosystem, Rwanda inclusive.

Other shortlisted companies and their technology solutions include; Ecorich Solutions engaged in patented organic composting in Kenya, Fixbot, a startup from Nigeria involved in vehicle diagnostics and inspection via OBD dongle, Karaa from Uganda, in e-Bike tracking, charging, retrofit, and rentals, as well as Maotronics Systems Limited, an IOT-enabled precision agriculture startup from Nigeria.

Others include Microfuse, also from Uganda, engaged in affordable plugin computers for the education sector, Neural Labs Africa Ltd, from Kenya and Senegal, whose innovations focus on deep learning and computer vision for healthcare diagnosis in the respective countries.

The program will culminate in a final demo day in December 2023, connecting startups with various industry leaders, venture capitalists, investors, and other accelerators.

“I’d like to applaud and congratulate these 10 startups for their innovative solutions,” said Sudeepto Roy, Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm Incorporated. “I am beyond excited to hear about their respective problem domains and innovative solutions,”