After over 17,800km of travelling, we arrived at Innovation City Cape Town for the grand finale of our Africa Tour: OxFounders x Cape Town. 🚀🗺️
In a packed auditorium, surrounded by startup and VC offices, eight selected startups gave all they could to win the hearts of our audience of investors, founders, and media.
We were honoured to be joined by His Excellency Antony Phillipson, UK High Commissioner to South Africa, and Alderman James Vos Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, as our star guests and keynote speakers.
Our heavy-hitting jury starred:
🔥 Fadilah Tchoumba, CEO of ABAN - African Business Angel Network
🔥 Janade Du Plessis, Managing Partner of Launch Africa Ventures
🔥 Anthony William Catt, Founder of Ventures 54 and London Africa Network
as well as our brilliant virtual jury members Charmaine Hayden, Anas Ben Mejdoub, Sherif Nessim, Giovanni Cattani, and Dillon Roberts.
The competition was fierce - so a massive congratulations to the startups that emerged victorious:
🥇 SeaH4, pitched by Gabrielle Ossinga, which generates biofuels from farmed algae
🥈 Alpha Tower, pitched by Solomon Smit, which provides e-learning technology for rural and underserved classrooms, that doesn't require internet connectivity
🥉 Hydrogen Energy Applications (HYENA), pitched by Jack (JV) Fletcher, which provides hydrogen generation using fuel cell technology and the existing LPG distribution infrastructure
❤️ and the Audience Favourite - Alpha Tower! The team, led by Solomon, had incredible energy and won our audience vote.
... and to all of our other top pitching teams including Zazu, Proply, Urobo Biotech, Ordiphase, and Bloo Money.
A HUGE thank you to our sponsors Amazon Web Services (AWS), O'Reilly Law, and Radix Legal & Consulting Ltd. for making this happen and for the generous prizes to the startups.
And, of course, to our amazing friends and partners in Cape Town, who made so many introductions and offered key advice, including Will Green, Henri Zietsman, Anthony William Catt, Kieno Kammies, Nadia Ernest and all the team at Innovation City, Cara Eachus, Milisa Mabinza and the team at UK South Africa Tech Hub, Peter Kraus, and many others.
And a special thank you to Toby Chance MP, who believed in this event from the very start, and helped at every step of the way.
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