AIT Alumni 2024
Starting with a Swiss – South African approach, the program and its focus on initiating and strengthening collaboration in research and innovation has grown into a multinational venture involving Switzerland and South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana.
Funded on the Swiss side by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) since 2007 participating countries have been contributing in-cash and in-kind to the successful development of this program. Strong partners emerged as the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) in South Africa, the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) of Universities South Africa (USAf), Ministries, Embassies, Universities, private sector stakeholders. They all have been contributing in an important way to take this program to the level at which we can enjoy it today.
2024 will give us the opportunity to celebrate 10+ years of joint university – entrepreneurship action. With start-up companies selected along these years and many of them operating successfully today we will dedicate the Year 2024 to the issue of company growth and address various aspects of it in webinars and on-site meetings.
On this page, you will find the announcement of our webinars as well as important dates for next year like the Annual AIT Swiss – Africa Conference end February 2024 in Nigeria and the AIT Swiss Africa Alumni Meeting in South Africa in November.
We look forward to a year of intensive discussion, experience sharing and growing awareness of how much knowledge is available in our own communities and our daily work.
Meet the webinars and founded start-ups on this page.
Webinar Series “Challenges of Growth” 2023 – 2024
Webinar 1
The 21st September will kick-off our webinar series with an input from Dr. Moses Kebalepile, researcher at the Wits School of Clinical Medicine (South Africa) and founder of a medtech company, Asthma Grid, a medical device warning of imminent asthma attacks. Dr Kebalepile will share with us the journey of the related tech development, the creation of first funding streams, challenges that he encountered on his company’s growth path and ways of addressing them.
Thursday 21st September 2023, 14:30 – 15:00 CEST
Moderator: Mr. Erich Thaler
Speaker
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Dr. Moses M. Kebalepile A medical data scientist and research coordinator at the University of the Witwatersrand, in the School of Clinical Medicine. He is also the Founder of a MedTech startup called KTI. Dr Moses graduated with a PhD in Public Health specialising in Computational Epidemiology.His academic research used Artificial Intelligence paradigms (Deep learning, particularly Artificial Neural networks) to study and predict asthma outcomes due to air pollution in the cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane. It was the unique algorithm from this doctoral research that he soft computed into a patented medical device called the Asthma Grid. |
Webinar 2
On 5th of October, a webinar with MLaw Mr Stephan A. Hofer will follow and address the important topic of international visibility of companies. How to set up international business infrastructure and to operate from abroad will be the questions that Mr Hofer will address.
Thursday 5th of October 2023, 12:00 – 12:30 CEST
Moderator: Mr. Erich Thaler
Speaker
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MLaw Mr. Stephan A. Hofer A lawyer from Switzerland, admitted to the Swiss and Bern Bar since 2013. Since his admission he worked as a legal practitioner for several companies in the financial sector in Geneva and Basel prior to joining business law firm GHR in 2016, where he was promoted to a partner in 2022. Mr. Hofer provides for legal advice in corporate law for Swiss and international SME’s and particularly focuses on restructurings. Furthermore, he is responsible for the privacy law division in the firm, providing legal advice for Swiss companies with special consideration of GDPR.Mr. Hofer heads the Africa Desk within the firm, wherein he cares to maintain cross-continental relationships with fellow lawyers all across Africa, as well as he is further responsible for relationships with Asian clients as well. Since this year, he is elected co-chair of the League of Lawyers, a network of independent law firms with the goal to connect legal practitioners from Asia and Europe. |
Webinar 3
On 26th of October the third webinar will take place. The speaker Mr Jordi Montserrat will talk about “How to connect to investors?”.
Thursday 26th of October2023, 13:00 – 13:30 CEST
Moderator: Mr. Erich Thaler
Speaker
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Mr Jordi Montserrat For the past 20 years, Jordi Montserrat has been active in the vibrant Swiss high-tech scene, contributing to the development of innovative businesses and stimulating the Swiss start-up ecosystem. He currently heads Venturelab Ldt, a Company supporting world class entrepreneurs and startups on their path to build successful ventures and fund raising, and is co-managing director of Venture Kick – a financing initiative supported by private donors. He also acts as business angel and board member in start-ups. |
Webinar 4
The fourth webinar will be held on 16th of November. The topic of this webinar will be “How to get your business investor ready?”. Ms Amne Suedi Kagasheki will give a presentation on this question.
Thursday 16th of November 2023, 13:00 – 13:30 CEST
Moderator: Mr. Erich Thaler
Speaker
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Ms Amne Suedi Kagasheki Managing Director Shikana Group Dar es Salaam, Tanzania President of the Swiss – Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce |
All webinars are of 30 min. and are followed by a Q&A session.
A registration link will be sent out to all alumni companies in due time.
Interactive Map
UMbalabala
UMbalabala Education Toolkit is a collection of novel methods and apparatuses for making learning, teaching and assessment easy. Especially for Foundation Phase of education. The educational toolkit uses pedagogical methods to enhance the learning of…
Read moreLast Modification: 7. July 2023
Ileemore
Ileemore, a start-up company from Nigeria, is an AI-powered e-learning platform that helps Anglophone West Africa secondary school students prepare for matriculation examination through a dynamic pedagogy and learning analytics. The Co-founder and CE…
Read moreLast Modification: 7. July 2023
Smart Class
The start-up company Smart Class from Rwanda offers an online learning platform which aims to connect all Rwandan high school students learning similar academic subjects and provide them with access to valuable learning materials and high-quality tea…
Read moreLast Modification: 7. July 2023
Mutware Educate
Mutware Educate is an Edtech start-up company from Rwanda that aims to boost education from traditional to digital learning. They provide an education platform with curriculum-based engaging content for nursery students and adults’ self-paced learnin…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
Ambani Africa
Ambani Africa is an award-winning South African EdTech company that specializes in educational products and services. They are a culture-centric and future-facing technology company that offers engaging solutions for the benefit of learners, parents,…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
Vambo Academy
Vambo Academy, a South African startup company, provides tools and spaces for learners to explore, experience, and learn about African languages, cultures, traditions, people, and more at their own pace. Vambo Academy offers language learning and tra…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
Zaio
Zaio, a South African startup company, offers an Online Learning Management System (LMS) with various learning journeys in coding education. Zaio also creates and delivers customized learning programs for companies to upskill their employees or aid t…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
Rwanda Green Lighting
Rwanda Green Lighting, a startup from Rwanda, harnesses airborne electrical energy to power street lights and areas still off the grid in Rwanda. The Chief Executive Officer is Ms Diane Mumararungu. Winner of the AIT-SASBI Spring Conference 2023 and…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
NG Trail
Trail NG is a Nigeria-based ed-tech startup company that has created a platform enabling companies to identify skills gaps in their employees. The owner is Mr Mubarak Lawal of the University of Ibadan. Winner of the AIT-SASBI Spring Conference 2023 a…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
LolaGreen
Cape Town based startup Lola Green converts waste products into sustainable construction materials. The founder is Mr Matimba Mabonda. Winner of the AIT-SASBI Spring Conference 2023 and participant of the Swiss Residency Week in Basel (Switzerland)….
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
Igugu Clean Tech
Igugu Clean Tech is a South African startup company that aims to produce biodiesel from nicotine-free tobacco plants for a cleaner, more environmentally friendly option than traditional diesel. The founder is Ms Zinhle Ngidi. Winner of the AIT-SASBI…
Read moreLast Modification: 2. June 2023
Derma2Go
Problem Research indicates that currently 69% of dermatologists are over 50 years old in Germany (Kis et al., 2017). It can be assumed that in 15 years there will be an undersupply of practicing dermatologists which implies inadequate medical care. T…
Read moreLast Modification: 24. May 2023
IcanFarm – Kilimo ni Mali
The Problem: Access to affordable credit Over 90% of the sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 million smallholder farmers lack access to formal credit. Less than 6% of commercial loan recipients are smallholder farmers. Source: FAQ In Kenya, only about 10% of sma…
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Soso Care: My Healthcare and I
About Soso Care: is a social enterprise that aims to use garbage as a financial resource to enable millions of uninsured slum dwellers especially pregnant women and kids to access micro health insurance as well as micro capital for petty trade. Our P…
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Pennysmart – Next generation bank for African millennials.
One Line Pitch: Next generation bank for African millennials. Business Summary: Pennysmart is the next generation digital bank that helps Ghanaians save anytime, anywhere with no cost. We are a Tier-4 Operator under Bank of Ghana rules and regulation…
Read moreLast Modification: 16. April 2020
Inocul8 – Inoculated, Protected, Safe.
Problem In Africa over half a million people including adults and children die from vaccine preventable diseases: such as pneumonia, rota virus, hepatitis B, cervical cancer, typhoid fever, amongst others, due to limited access to vaccination service…
Read moreLast Modification: 16. April 2020
MPOWER VENTURES – eMPowering local entrepreneurs as the major driving force of solar energy in emerging markets
MPower is a tech4impact venture tackling the challenges of energy access and financial inclusion in emerging markets. As local SMEs are key to the socioeconomical development of these countries, MPower creates a B2B platform to empower the next gener…
Read moreLast Modification: 16. April 2020
Enable | Digital
Problem Enable has identified a significant problem in a highly underserved market: IT solutions for impact ventures in emerging markets. In order to access the market, Enable has developed both a set of innovative technologies as well as a solid pr…
Read moreLast Modification: 16. April 2020
CommoChain
CommoChain is a web-based solution that allows Coffee Exporters to better track their samples and manage exporting documents. It delivers efficiency & traceability benefits to ultimately provide best coffee to clients. Pains for Coffee Exporters…
Read moreLast Modification: 16. April 2020
chiweto – Enhancing farmers farm production efficiency & livelihood through MobileTech solutions
Business Description We provide cow performance status diagnostic mobile phone app., information and insurance services to livestock farmers. Our services help farmers increase efficiency in detecting animals a high risk of nutrition and health probl…
Read moreLast Modification: 15. April 2020
Global Enterprise Monitor: Exploratory Kick-off in Western Africa
The grant request helped to support a Swiss-Western African scientific workshop at the University of Ouagadougou 2, Burkina Faso, in spring 2015 for 3 full days. The scientific workshop was intended to gather Swiss scientists and Western African scie…
Read moreLast Modification: 30. December 2018