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SA tech innovator grabs top spot in KPMG Private Enterprise competition

SA tech innovator grabs top spot in KPMG Private Enterprise competition

A South African digital outfit that specialises in biometric identification for companies, is the winner in KPMG Private Enterprise’s Tech Innovator in Africa competition. The competition has been running for four months, finding ten finalists and then ultimately, the top three tech contenders.

The finalists are dominated by small companies from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. Only businesses from these three countries made it to the finals.

The winning business is iiDENTIFii followed closely by Chekkit Technologies Inc in 2nd place and Troygoldin in 3rd. These tech innovators will represent Africa at the global competition with the awards set for November this year in Lisbon, Portugal. In total, the competition is run in multiple countries worldwide. iiDENTIFii has received numerous major awards over the past five years for their innovative tech applications.

The global competition is made up of 20 countries across key economies globally and while each region runs their own competition, the global platform allows for various players across the world to pitch their businesses’ products and services and become recognised for leading tech innovation and business model excellence, judged by a panel of local and global industry experts.

“Africa is ripe with innovation and this competition truly showcases Africa’s leading tech innovators on a local and global scale – demonstrating the impact that the fastest-growing tech innovators are having across the globe. We opened the competition in February this year and had an overwhelming response with 159 applications from across the continent – almost double compared to the number of applications received last year. This demonstrates not only the growing tech innovation in Africa but indicates the appetite for African tech businesses to be recognised and scale their operations for the greater good of the continent and its people,” said Alan Barr, Partner and Head of Private Enterprise at KPMG.

Following of the gruelling semi-finals rounds in East, Southern and West Africa, 10 finalists pitched it out at a virtual event for the final leg of the Africa competition. The competition was tough but iiDENTIFii was announced as the winner that will represent Africa at the global event later this year. The finalists were judged on innovation & disruption, market potential, customer adoption, marketing/buzz, pitch quality and long-term potential and sustainability of their respective businesses – leaving the esteemed judges with a difficult task at hand.

iiDENTIFii stood out given their level of innovation and disruption, long term potential (there are broad application opportunities for their solution) and the quality of their pitch. Innovation in Africa is alive and well and we are excited to the upcoming event where the winner of the KPMG Tech Innovator in Africa, iiDENTIFii will now participate in a global final with the winners of each of the participating countries. iiDENTIFii will not only be recognised for their business approach on the global stage but have the chance to network with other industry experts and tech innovators across the globe.

“The entire iiDENTIFii team is honoured to have won this prestigious competition. We’ve been inspired by all the world-class innovators who were in the running throughout Africa. As Africa’s representative for the global finals, we’re determined to make our continent proud when we compete on the global stage, at the Web Summit 2022 in Lisbon in November,” said Lance Fanaroff, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of iiDENTIFii.


 

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