Nigerian cloud accounting platform, Accounteer, won the inaugural MEST Africa Challenge organized by the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, a training program, seed fund and Africa’s largest tech incubator based in Ghana.
The four regional winners from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa were given the opportunity to pitch their startups at the MEST Africa Summit in Cape Town on Jun. 20, with Accounteer chosen as the eventual winner, according to DisruptAfrica.
The startup offers accounting and payroll management software that is specifically developed with the needs of African small and medium businesses in mind.
The incubator received 720 applications from startups in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa in April, and 32 finalists were selected to pitch at the regional finals in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi and Cape Town.
The Nigerian startup emerged as the winner of the challenge, with over 150 investors and top executives from Africa, the U.S. and Europe in attendence, taking home a $50,000 investment after being selected ahead of regional finalists Cowtribe from Ghana, Kenya’s Data Integrated Limited and swiftVee from South Africa.
During the pitch, founder Niyi Adegboye revealed that Accounteer currently has 200 accountants on its platform that serve 9,000 users in 72 countries, according to Ventureburn.
This is the first time that the incubator has invested in a startup that is not part of its incubation program, from which many success stories have emerged.
The incubator has links throughout Africa, and since launching in 2008 it has already invested over $20 million in African startups, reports GhanaWeb.
In addition to the flagship incubator in Accra, the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology launched two new spaces in Lagos, Nigeria and Cape Town, South Africa, in November last year, and a space in Kenya last month, expanding its reach and presence on the African continent, according to ITNewsAfrica.
Over 350 individual entrepreneurs have graduated from the training program and over 30 tech startups have been launched via seed funding and mentorship courtesy of the incubator.
Entrepreneurs in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Cote D’ivoire have benefited from the Accra incubator, with the likes of Kudobuzz, meQasa, Tress, ClaimSync and Saya Mobile finding success under the incubator’s watchful eye.
