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Four companies selected as winners

Posted on by darion

Tech

Tix Africa took home the top prize of $50,000 for its no-code operating system that helps event organizers facilitate payments and registration.

SBJ TECH (ROB SCHAEFER)

The first version of the NBA Africa Triple Double Accelerator program, which the NBA launched in April in partnership with ALX Ventures, culminated Wednesday evening with a demo day at the league’s Manhattan headquarters.

Ten African startups – which were selected from an initial pool of over 700 applicants – presented their proposals to a panel of five judges. Four companies were awarded prizes. First place received $50,000, second place $40,000, third place $30,000, and fourth place $20,000.

“The entire (NBA) is committed to Africa,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in opening remarks. “We see huge opportunities in this. We see an opportunity to further develop the game of basketball and we see an economic opportunity. And that’s what we’ll be talking about today.”

In addition to Silver, NBA Africa general manager Clare Akamanzi, NBA Africa/Nigeria vice president and country director Gbemisola Abudu and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (virtually) spoke in the room. Also in attendance were former NBA player Joakim Noah and several African business leaders.

The four awarded companies, in order from first to fourth, are:

  • Tix Africa: A no-code operating system that event organizers can use to facilitate payments and registrations. Co-founder and CEO Floayemi Agusto presented on behalf of the Nigeria-based company, noting partnerships with global financial services providers such as MasterCard and 364% year-over-year revenue growth.
  • Salubata: Footwear manufacturer (founded in Nigeria) that produces modular shoes – i.e. made with components that can be detached, re-fitted and customizable – from recycled plastic waste. The company, an alumnus of the Techstars accelerator, devotes 5% of its profits to empowering women and youth in underserved communities, according to chief operating officer Yewande Adebowale.
  • HustleSasa: A live event management platform based in Kenya that supports services including payment and registration processing, merchandise sales and customer data management.
  • UBR VR: An Egyptian startup that franchises locations that enable in-person participation in multi-user virtual reality experiences, from shooter games to museum tours.

After the winners were announced, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum revealed that the league would also award each of the remaining six finalists $10,000.

Akamanzi cited the number of candidates, mentoring partners (Nigeria University of Technology and Management, Kuramo Ventures, Paystack) and feedback from investors considering investing in cohort members as indicators of success in the accelerator’s first year of operation.

The NBA hopes to continue the program each year, Abudu told SBJ, with the potential to focus on specific segments within a broad range of technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) in the future. While this year’s awards were equity investments, the league is also considering delayed equity investments as an incentive, as is the case with the NBA Launchpad incubator.

“We see that the continent is hungry for such an accelerator,” Abudu said. “We will take lessons from this year, as well as best practices from Launchpad, and apply them in the second year of the program.”