Six African Startups Named Among Winners of The 2nd Microsoft Affordable Access Initiative

Six African startups have been named among the winners of Microsoft’s Affordable Access Initiative Seed Grant. They will be rewarded with an undisclosed amount.

In addition to the prize money, winners will also receive hundreds of free training classes and other technical content through the Microsoft BizSpark programme and get development and test software that includes: Azure, Windows, Visual Studio, Office and SQL Server.

Paul Garnett, the senior director of the Affordable Access Initiative said: “We’re inspired by our grantees’ passion to bring internet and energy access, and the economic benefits that flow from it to parts of the world that need it most.”

The Winners of the African Access Initiative include:

• Kukua Weather Services — Is a Ugandan social enterprise which aims to help farmers better utilise information on the weather to improve their crops. The grant will help Kukua conduct an impact study in Uganda to further develop its app, delivery channels, products and to scale up.
• Solaris Offgrid — This Tanzanian energy startup uses a pay-as-you-go platform to assist communities in getting affordable access to energies. The AAI seed grant will help the startup pilot the use of 1 000 tablets for about 7 000 users.
• Standard Microgrid — Is a Zambian startup which uses microgrid solar packages together with IoT home sensors. The seed grant will help the company roll out of 150 units in Zambia.
• SunCulture — Is an agricultural startup based in Kenya helping smallholder farmers to improve their crop yields using solar-powered irrigation systems. The fund will help the startup to expand its current irrigation systems by adding sensors, camera technology, and drones.
• WrightGrid — Is a startup from the DRC which designs, develops, manufactures and deploys solar-powered phone charging and WiFi stations in public spaces. The AAI seed grant will assist WrightGrid in deploying 15 solar-powered phone charging stations.
• VisionNet — This company aims to provide rural university students in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with internet access. The seed grant will help increase VisionNet’s hotspot coverage and WiFi services, as well as assist its employees with training and capacity building focusing on women in science.