The KPMG Global Tech Innovator launch, which is aimed at recognising the fastest-growing, most innovative technology companies across Africa, crowned Khula! as the top startup innovator in the continent, while another South African-based company, Ukheshe took second place.
KPMG Global Tech Innovator launch
The competition, which was created to include 16 countries across most major regions of the world, invited businesses to pitch their innovations and present their growth ambitions to panels of local and global industry experts in the hopes of being recognised as a leading tech innovator, according to IT-ONLINE.
“We opened the competition to Africa in February this year and received 75 applications from across the continent. The response was phenomenal, as was the talent and innovation across these businesses. Thirty applicants were then chosen, based on the competition criteria, to proceed to the judges’ scoring round. From here, 10 finalists were then invited to pitch at a virtual event where Khula! was announced as the overall Africa winner,” said Alan Barr, partner and head of Private Enterprise at KPMG.
Khula! wins award as top emerging tech innovator
Khula!, the Agri-Tech startup which provides software tools to enable and grow agriculture and food businesses has expressed gratitude and is set to represent the continent in a global competition, the Web Summit Conference, in November.
“I am incredibly humbled that we have been chosen as the overall winner to represent Africa on the global stage, more especially because we are in the process of rolling out the Khula! Inputs App,” the chief executive officer at Khula!, Karidas Tshintsholo said in a statement.
“None of this would have been possible without my incredible team. The competition was incredibly intense, and a lot of the finalists were at a far more advanced stage than we are – this makes it even more important for us to bring our A-game in Lisbon,” he added.