Twelve African startups will take the stage at Africa Tech Summit Nairobi on February 11-12, pitching live to investors in the event’s annual Investment Showcase—a high-stakes competition that has become one of the continent’s premier platforms for connecting ventures with global capital.
The cohort represents a snapshot of where African tech is heading in 2026: away from consumer apps and toward infrastructure. These aren’t lifestyle businesses or marketplace aggregators. They’re companies tackling procurement inefficiencies, waste management, cross-border payments, construction supply chains, and disability accessibility at scale.
The selection comes as African startup funding shows signs of recovery, with 2025’s $3.5 billion representing a 59% jump from 2024’s brutal $2.2 billion trough. But the nature of that capital has shifted dramatically—investors are writing bigger checks to fewer companies, favoring infrastructure plays with clear unit economics over consumer-facing platforms burning cash for growth.
The East African Contingent: Kenya’s Four
Kenya contributes the largest share of the cohort with four ventures, signaling Nairobi’s continued dominance as East Africa’s startup capital.
Innobid is using AI to democratize access to procurement opportunities for marginalized entrepreneurs. In markets where government and corporate procurement processes remain opaque and relationship-driven, Innobid’s platform surfaces opportunities and automates bid preparation—potentially opening billions in contracts to previously excluded vendors.
Pretium is building the bridge between traditional payment rails and blockchain ecosystems. As crypto adoption accelerates across Africa (driven by remittances, inflation hedging, and cross-border commerce), Pretium is betting that the winning infrastructure won’t be pure blockchain or pure fiat—it’ll be the interoperability layer connecting both.
TIBU Health is revolutionizing primary and chronic care access in underserved communities through a tech-enabled clinic network. The model mirrors what Oak Street Health did in the US, but adapted for African realities: franchised clinics, telemedicine integration, and partnerships with existing healthcare workers rather than attempting to replace them.
Zerobionic might be the cohort’s most ambitious play. This disability-led startup transforms plastic waste into AI-powered humanoid robots that translate speech into real-time sign language. If it sounds like science fiction, that’s the point. Zerobionic is attacking two massive problems—plastic waste and disability accessibility—with a single integrated solution.
West Africa’s Heavyweight: Nigeria’s Four
Nigeria matches Kenya’s representation with four ventures spanning agriculture, supply chain, fintech, and e-commerce infrastructure.
Niteon is tackling the invisibility of African manufacturers and farmers in global supply chains. Millions of producers remain “unseen, underpaid, and disconnected from global opportunity,” according to the company. Niteon’s platform creates digital identities and transaction histories for informal producers, making them bankable and exportable.
Timart addresses Nigerian SMEs’ inventory management nightmares. In a market where most small businesses track inventory with pen and paper (if at all), Timart provides simple, mobile-first tools that integrate with suppliers and financiers. The wedge is inventory management; the endgame is embedded financing for the entire SME sector.
Vepay is building infrastructure for fast, secure cross-border payments across Africa. As intra-African trade grows (the AfCFTA is slowly becoming real), the lack of functional payment rails remains the primary bottleneck. Vepay is one of several ventures racing to solve this—the winner could become Africa’s Stripe.
Winich Farms connects smallholder farmers directly to markets and financial services, cutting out the exploitative middlemen who capture most of agriculture’s value. The model isn’t new, but execution matters. Winich’s traction will depend on its ability to aggregate farmers at scale while maintaining quality standards buyers demand.
North Africa’s Depth: Egypt’s Two
Egypt contributes two ventures, both addressing infrastructure gaps that plague the entire continent.
Bekia is digitizing Africa’s fragmented waste collection sector. Across the continent, waste management is dominated by informal collectors operating without coordination or efficiency. Bekia’s platform connects waste generators (businesses and households) with collectors and recyclers, creating transparent pricing and environmental impact tracking. Think of it as the operating system for Africa’s circular economy.
Chefaa tackles the chronic medication access crisis. In fragmented pharmacy markets, patients with recurring prescriptions face constant barriers to refills—medication stockouts, pharmacy closures, payment friction. Chefaa is building a digital platform that ensures consistent access, improving patient compliance and adherence while creating a defensible subscription revenue model.
The Regional Wildcards: Zambia and Pan-African
Rounding out the cohort are two ventures representing underserved markets.
Bosso Africa (Zambia) is streamlining Africa’s construction materials sourcing. Anyone who’s built anything in Africa knows the pain: fragmented suppliers, unpredictable pricing, delivery delays, quality inconsistencies. Bosso is creating a digital marketplace that aggregates suppliers, standardizes pricing, and coordinates logistics. Construction is a $500 billion annual market across Africa—even small efficiency gains are massive opportunities.
Hizo is a pan-African play revolutionizing intra-African payments. Unlike Vepay (which is Nigeria-focused), Hizo is positioning as the continent-wide solution. The technical challenges are enormous—dozens of currencies, conflicting regulations, unreliable correspondent banking. But if Hizo cracks it, the addressable market is virtually every cross-border transaction on the continent.
What The Cohort Reveals About African Tech in 2026
The selection tells us several things about where African tech is heading:
Infrastructure Over Apps: Not a single consumer lifestyle app in the cohort. Every venture is building fundamental infrastructure—payments, supply chains, healthcare access, waste management. The “Uber for X” era is definitively over.
Blockchain Finally Useful: Pretium’s inclusion signals that blockchain is moving beyond crypto speculation into actual utility. Payment rails, supply chain tracking, identity verification—these are problems blockchain might actually solve.
Climate Meets Business: Bekia and Zerobionic aren’t climate startups pretending to be businesses. They’re businesses that happen to address climate challenges. This is the model that scales—environmental impact as a byproduct of solving real commercial problems.
Disability Tech Emerges: Zerobionic’s focus on accessibility represents an underserved market finally getting attention. Africa’s 80 million people with disabilities represent massive unmet demand for assistive technology.
Fintech Evolves: Notice the fintech companies aren’t building payment apps or digital wallets. They’re building infrastructure: cross-border rails (Vepay, Hizo), blockchain interoperability (Pretium). The consumer layer is solved; the backend infrastructure isn’t.
The Stakes: Access to Global Capital
For the selected ventures, the Investment Showcase represents more than just pitch practice. Africa Tech Summit attracts serious institutional investors, family offices, and corporates writing checks from $500,000 to $50 million+.
“Driving investment is the core goal of the Africa Tech Summit,” said Mark Mugenwa, business development manager at Africa Tech Summit. “This year’s selected cohort features ventures that are solving Africa’s challenges with sustainable, scalable impact models. These companies have demonstrated incredible traction and we look forward to hosting them and the wider ecosystem in Nairobi next month.”
The emphasis on “sustainable, scalable impact models” is telling. Gone are the days when African startups could raise on TAM slides and growth projections. Investors now demand proof: unit economics, customer retention, path to profitability. The funding winter forced discipline, and the companies that survived are stronger for it.
What Happens Next
The February 11-12 event will bring together “tech leaders, MNOs, banks, international investors, entrepreneurs, governments, trade bodies, media and leading ventures,” according to organizers. Translation: everyone who matters in African tech will be in Nairobi.
For the 12 selected startups, the pressure is immense. A strong pitch could unlock Series A rounds, strategic partnerships, or even acquisitions. A weak pitch means waiting another year for the next major showcase opportunity.
But beyond the individual outcomes, the cohort serves as a barometer for African tech’s evolution. These companies represent where smart founders and investors believe the next decade’s value will be created.
The answer, increasingly, is infrastructure. Unsexy, capital-intensive, technically complex infrastructure that enables everything else.
Not the next social media app. Not another e-commerce marketplace. But the payment rails, supply chain operating systems, waste management platforms, and healthcare networks that will allow Africa’s digital economy to actually function.
The companies pitching in Nairobi aren’t building for exits to Google or Stripe. They’re building to become the Google and Stripe of Africa—foundational infrastructure that every other company depends on.
