Prosus – the power behind the world’s leading lifestyle eCommerce brands – recently gathered an audience at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the Africa edition of the Tech Found Her awards.
The startup competition finalists featured 10 founders, with 10 different stories, and one shared force.
From the 1168 applications received, the 10 finalists were:
✨Farm to Feed – Claire van Enk
✨Farmerline Group – Esther Kimani – WINNER
✨HubPharm Africa – Tope Kareem
✨@LifeBank – Temie Giwa – Tubosun
✨POLLEN PATROLLERS – Margaret Wanjiku
✨Pullus Africa – Opeoluwa Fayomi
✨tix.africa – Folayemi Agusto
✨Neotex.ai RDC – Jenny Ambukiyenyi Onya
✨AI for Good category – FriendnPal (PREDICTIVE AI MULTILINGUAL MENTAL HEALTH) – Esther Eruchie
✨GRIT – Gender Rights in Tech – Leonora Tima
Says Gustavo Vitti (CHRO at Prosus & Naspers):
A year ago, this was only a conversation.
In Nov last year we said what if we create a competition for women founders and CEOs.
What if we give more visibility to the power of female entrepreneurship.
Some months later we launched the first edition in India.
More than 120 founders joined.
This second edition in Africa grew almost 10X.
Almost 1.200 women registered.
The momentum is real.
And today we celebrated the finalists on stage.
Brave. Sharp. Creative.
Women building solutions for real problems on this continent.A special recognition to Esther Kimani, who received the Prosus award today.
Your clarity and drive moved everyone in the room.
Vitti adds that there is also a bigger, mind blowing context at play:
- Around 47% of STEAM graduates in Africa are women.
- Around 26% of founders are women.
- But only 3% receive funding.
He concludes:
This gap is not about talent. It is about opportunity.
Tech Found Her is one small step to shift this picture.
To create more visibility.
More confidence.
More role models.
I left the event inspired.
And very proud of what we are building together.
A little background
Prosus launched the first Tech FoundHER Challenge in India in May this year with its main goal being to recognise and reward brilliant female local entrepreneurs that are striving.
Women tech founders secured equity-free grants and gained visibility with investors and customers to scale their businesses.
The results reaffirmed a simple truth: when we back women-led tech innovation, value compounds — for businesses and for society.
Now the challenge has arrived in Africa, with the finale at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange — a powerful reminder of a big success milestone for any business: when it lists.