Sankalp Forum, an initiative of Intellecap, one of Africaās largest convening on impact entrepreneurship and sustainable development, hosted its 10th Edition of the Sankalp Africa Summit, at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies, from the 1st and 2nd of March 2023.
Every year, the Summit recognizes and rewards high-impact enterprises from a pool of promising finalists, in the African region which are tackling key development challenges. The finalists also get the opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury panel composed of eminent business leaders and investors. This year the winners were the four most innovative young entrepreneurs in Africa, whose ideas are well poised to deliver significant impact outcomes, whilst solving some of the most complex social challenges.
The 10 outstanding finalist impact enterprises representing the region wereāVetsark, an agri startup, Zivanae Afya Bora, a healthcare startup and ThinkBikes, a Circular Economies startup from Nigeria, Omajalands, an agri startup from Zimbabwe, Hearty Engineering, an agri startup from Ethiopia, Kwikbasket, and Afriagrimark, both agri startups from Kenya, Agki Medical Laboratory, a healthcare startup from Tanzania and Legendary Foods, an agri startup from Ghana.
Legendary Foods
The Sankalp Africa Awards 2023 Winner was Legendary Foods from Ghana. A food tech startup, Legendary Foods (LF) is on a mission to produce West & Central Africa’s most cost-effective, nutritious, resource-efficient, and accessible form of protein, palm larvae, with technology and farming systems proudly built in Ghana.
Vetsark
The First Runner Up was Vetsark Limited from Nigeria. An agri-financing startup, Vetsark helps farmers and agribusinesses in Africa access finance, increase productivity, and improve their profitability. They bridge the gap between farmers and financial institutions and are helping unlock the potential of African agriculture by providing farmers with the financing and support they need to grow their businesses.
AGKI Medical
The Second Runner Up was Agki Medical Laboratory from Tanzania. A healthcare startup, Agki Medical is working to solve the problem of Anemia in pregnant women and children under the age of five living in rural communities. It uses an Electric car to offer a digital mobile dispensary for rural patients by providing affordable laboratory tests for diagnosis, clinics, medications for treatments, and Free Health education.
Hearty Engineering
In a unique format the Fourth Winner, called the āSankalp Ecosystem Awardā is given through a voting process from practitioners from the developmental ecosystem. This year the winner was Hearty Engineering from Ethiopia, an agri-tech startup that provides an Intelligent and IoT-supported technology device that helps monitor and treat Livestockās health thereby showing how innovation can make a significant impact when wrapped in technology.
āSankalp today, in its 10th year in Africa, celebrates a decade of impact and the Sankalp Africa Awards has truly been a regional trailblazer when it comes to identifying and supporting hundreds of impact enterprises whose business promise and potential is crucial to solving economic and development challenges. This year we were once again inspired by the ideas and the cutting-edge innovation of our winners, each of whom demonstrates the ability to drive action and influence positive outcomes,ā said Arielle Molino, Sankalp Lead and AVP Intellecap Africa
The Summit, supported by Visa Foundation, GIZ, Villgro Africa, FSD Uganda, US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and Energy Catalyst, engaged over 1,400 stakeholders, from 70+ countries around the World, including participants from 40+ African countries.