Qualcomm Shortlists Startups for Qualcomm Make in Africa

Emma Okonji

Qualcomm, a global technology company has shortlisted startups for the

Qualcomm Make in Africa 2024, and has announced the winner of the 2023 Wireless Reach Social Impact Fund.

The Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform, now in its second year, aims to work with and support the development of Africa’s emerging technology ecosystem by providing mentorship, education, and training programmes with a focus on 5G, Edge-Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Compute, and Internet of Things (IoT).

This year, Qualcomm received an overwhelming response, with approximately 250 applications from 30 countries.  

 Qualcomm also announced that the development of L2Pro Africa website content was near completion, providing free online training on intellectual property protection.  

As the first initiative of its kind in Africa, Qualcomm Make in Africa is an equity-free mentorship programme that identifies promising early-stage startups keen on applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies such as 5G, Edge-AI/ML, Compute, and IoT to innovative end-to-end systems solutions, including hardware.

The selected startups will receive free mentorship, business coaching, access to engineering consultation for product development, and guidance on protecting intellectual property.

Startups in the 2024 cohort include: Aurora Health from Kenya, which provides AI-based cardiovascular health care tools; CropScan from Kenya, which uses solar-powered smart farming IoT devices; Cure Bionics from Tunisia that makes smart 3D printed prosthetic arms; DevisionX from Egypt, which provides AI-based low-code computer vision tools; Kalio from Cameroon is building AI tools for Agricultural IoT; while Kitovu from Nigeria provides tools and software for smart agricultural warehouse management. Other Startups include: NextAI Studios from Kenya builds AI-based emotion detection into toys for children’s mental healthcare, RIM Nextgen from Kenya, uses smart tools for monitoring propane consumption; Sparcx from South Africa uses AI for enhancing radar signal processing, while Vizmerald from Tunisia, is working on AI-based textile industry inspection.    

Qualcomm also announced the awardees of the 2023 Wireless Reach Social Impact Fund. The fund, provided by Qualcomm through its Qualcomm Wireless Reach