Nairobi, Kenya – The seventh edition of the Africa Tech Summit Nairobi, powered by Raenest, concluded on February 13th, 2025, with a prestigious awards ceremony recognizing the continent’s leading tech entrepreneurs and ventures. The summit, held betwen February 12th and 13th, connected over 1,600 tech leaders from more than 65 countries, fostering business opportunities and collaboration. Fifty-five finalists, representing the best in African tech innovation, traveled to Nairobi to attend the summit.
Lauren Adair, Director of Africa Tech Summit, expressed her enthusiasm, stating, “The Awards were created to celebrate tech companies driving business and growth across a range of sectors, and it was fantastic to host so many finalists doing this, all in one room. A huge thank you to our independent judging panel and to everyone who joined us in recognizing their achievements, cheering them on and closing the seventh Africa Tech Summit Nairobi on a high.”
The Africa Tech Summit Awards highlighted achievements across 11 sector categories and two individual categories. Over 300 applications were received, with an independent judging panel evaluating nominees based on innovation, impact, scalability, and relevance to the African market.
Individual Award Winners:
- Female Tech Innovator: Chinwe Udo-Davis (Nigeria), Co-Founder & CEO of Instollar, a green energy marketplace addressing limited access to clean energy in Africa. Instollar’s InstallHer program trains women in solar installation, creating jobs in the green economy.
- Young Tech Innovator: Maxwell Opondo (Kenya), developer of Zerobionic, a robotic arm that responds to sign language, facilitating real-time communication for students with hearing impairments.
Sector Award Winners:
- Agritech Award: Mazao AgClimate Limited (Tanzania)
- AI Award: Cassava Technologies (South Africa)
- Climate Tech Award: Sabi (Nigeria)
- Cross Border Payments Award: Flutterwave (Nigeria)
- Digital Commerce Award: OmniRetail (Nigeria)
- EdTech Award: Ikusasa Technology Solutions (South Africa)
- Enterprise Award: Smile ID (Nigeria)
- FemTech Award: My Pregnancy Journey (South Africa)
- FinTech Award: HUB2 (Mauritius)
- Health Tech Award: Zuri Health (Kenya)
- Web3 Award: MiniPay (Norway/Nigeria)
The awards ceremony marked a successful conclusion to the Africa Tech Summit Nairobi, underscoring the dynamic and innovative nature of the African tech landscape. The winners and finalists received recognition for their contributions, gaining access to networking opportunities and potential investment and partnerships.
C4DLab Lab was represented by Dr. Samuel Ruhiu, who, together with Ms Faith Barasa (Department of Business Administration). The two participated in the summit alongside a team from Carnegie Mellon University—Africa, which conducted a masterclass on “Building the Backbone of Innovation Unlocking Human Capital for Success.”
Some of the topics discussed included business incubation and tech skills marketplace. The masterclass was sought to share ideas on “harnessing talent to drive innovation and industry transformation.”
