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200+ Startups flock to #Africa4Future initiative run by Airbus.

More than 200 start-up companies from across some 28 countries in Africa applied for a place on the Africa4Future initiative run by Airbus.

Now in its third season, #Africa4Future saw 10 start-ups originating from Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, all of which will have the opportunity to further develop their ideas in preparation for a virtual showcase in June. This year’s focus is on remote sensing for precision agriculture and infrastructure development.

How can remote sensing for precision agriculture help respond to food shortages? How can satellite technology ensure the sustainable development of infrastructure across Africa?

These are the key questions—in line with SDG 2 and SDG 9 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals—that start-ups in Africa were challenged to address in their #Africa4Future application. The selected applicants now form this year’s latest cohort.

Over the next month, the start-ups will have access to technical and commercial workshops—as well as mentorship opportunities with Airbus, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit German (GIZ), and CCHub experts and coaches—to push their ideas to the next level. In June, the cohort will present their work to the #Africa4Future executive committee during a virtual showcase.

Our virtual showcase in June will be the perfect moment for start-ups to show what Africa can achieve with satellite technology and support,” says François Lombard, Director of Intelligence, Airbus Defence & Space.

Sean Wiid, UP42 Chief Product Officer, adds: “UP42 is proud to be supporting this initiative to boost innovation in Africa by providing the startup’s easy access to a wide range of Earth-observation data, analytics and infrastructure at scale.

#Africa4Future is a joint-accelerator programme launched by Airbus BizLab and “Make-IT in Africa,” an initiative developed by GIZ, the German agency for international cooperation. It is implemented with the help of CCHub, a Nigerian start-up consultancy. In addition, UP42, a developer platform and marketplace for geospatial data and analytics, recently signed on as the programme’s technology sponsor. Since 2017, #Africa4Future has accelerated 14 start-ups in Africa.

Introducing the 2020 #Africa4Future cohort

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