The winner will represent Africa at the global event in Tallinn, Estonia, next year, with a chance to win a share of the €1 million (US$1.1 million) prize pool.

Latitude59, Estonia’s premier startup and tech event, hosted its 12th edition in May.

The competition, now in its third year, continues to attract innovative startups from around the world.

It drew over 3,500 attendees, including more than 900 startup representatives and nearly 600 investors.

In September, Latitude59 launched its call for African early-stage startups to compete for a spot in its 2024 global pitch event.

A total of 382 applications were submitted from 37 African countries, highlighting the continent’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The top 10 startups have now been selected to pitch at the African final, scheduled for November 28 in Kenya.

The selected Kenyan ventures include:

• Eco Nasi: Converts pineapple pulp waste into vegan leather.
• Grekkon: Develops moisture sensors for smallholder farmers.
• NoMa: Digitizes school transportation through a tech platform.
• Paycloud: Builds a neobank to support African MSMEs with payments, credit access, and aggregation.
• Roadrims: Offers reliable and cost-effective logistics solutions.
• Twiva: Operates as a social commerce platform.
• VunaPay: Provides instant payments to farmers.
• Zerobionic: Creates a robotic arm tailored for students with hearing impairments.

Nigeria and Tanzania Join the Race

Rounding out the top 10 are AcemyX from Nigeria, which provides a learning management system (LMS) offering personalized tools for exam preparation, and Afya Mama from Tanzania, which delivers maternal and reproductive health information through SMS and a web app.

The African winner will head to Estonia to pitch at next year’s Latitude59, competing for the lucrative prize pool and gaining global exposure among investors and industry leaders.