ACCRA Reuters -- A team of software engineers tracked progress on the back streets of Accra last week as a pair of motorcyclists from Ghanaian startup Swoove zipped along Accra's back streets with deliveries.
Swoove's founders say that because it started out in tough times, the firm is well placed to weather the economic fallout of the COVID 19 pandemic and the effects of conflict in Ukraine.
Swoove was one of five finalist from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana chosen from a pool of more than 500 applicants in the MEST Africa Challenge last week, which offers a grand prize of $50,000 in funding.
Since the coronaviruses forced it online in 2020, it was the first in-person competition on the Silicon Valley-style Accra campus of the Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training programme and seed fund.
MEST's portfolio director Melissa Nsiah said that this year's finalists have developed their businesses in a downturn that has disproportionately affected emerging markets.
It's like walking into a gold store and buying a nice bracelet, versus having to actually mine and refine the gold before you can present it to the customer, Nsiah said. That is a huge feat. The competition was won by Senegalese e-commerce platform Kwely, which focuses on African-made products. All five finalists will receive coaching from MEST throughout the life of the company.
Tabiri took comfort in the outlook for African innovation even though Swoove did not win.
He said there was going to be a lot of startups coming up that are going to solve our problems, and now they have the money to do it.