By Martin Ekpeke
Online ticketing startup, PayPass and Releaf, an agri-tech startup fuelling the sales of agricultural commodities with its digital trading marketplace have been listed among the twelve technology startups to watch out for in 2018.
According to Disrupt Africa, these two startups were selected among the twelve because they are solving local problems with truly inspiring solutions.
Disrupt Africa noted that PayPass has witnessed impressive growth since its launch in May of this year, with over 2,400 people using the platform and more than 60 events listed. PayPass has designed a portal where users can create their own events, share them on social media and have their audience register and pay for tickets, with payments processed via third-party payment processor Paystack. The platform is initially focused on college events in Nigeria.
Also, Releaf’s concept revolves around building trust between various stakeholders in agribusiness, allowing registered sellers to bid for verified buyer contracts. The startup came out of stealth mode in August, announcing it has already verified over 600 agribusinesses and facilitated over 100 connections. With the platform now publicly available, Releaf hopes to onboard 20,000 businesses over the next 12 months.
Releaf was selected to join Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator, bagging itself US$120, 000 in funding as a result.
Another startup selected from the West African region is Farmerline, a Ghanaian startup that connects small-scale farmers to information, services, products and resources to improve their incomes; and has over 200,000 farmers registered to date.
In North Africa, Moroccan based WaystoCap, a B2B trading platform that buys and sells products – enabling them to discover products, verify them, obtain financing and insurance, manage their shipments, and ensure payment security was selected. Others are Vendo.ma , FilKhedma ,
In East Africa, Sokowatch , Sky.Garden and Intelworld were selected.
From Southern Africa, The Sun Exchange , hearX Group and Tupuca were considered by Disrupt Africa as startups solving local problems with truly inspiring solutions.