KPMG Private Enterprise Tech Innovator in Africa competition

After a 4-month long competition, KPMG Private Enterprise has announced the winner of their Tech Innovator in Africa Awards where, iiDENTIFii took the top spot, followed closely by Chekkit Technologies Inc in 2nd place and Troygoldin 3rd place. Following the incredible success of the inaugural competition last year, KPMG again called out to tech innovators across the continent to bring their innovations to the table in the aim of not only highlighting new technology breakthroughs that transform and revolutionise businesses in diverse industries, but to identify those businesses truly leading the pack – to take them to the global event taking place in in Lisbon, Portugal in November 2022.

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,” says 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. 

“It was great to see the shift in innovations this year and how African businesses have used the challenges of the past two years to truly define their strategies and ensure they have adapted to what the market wants and needs,” continues Barr.

iiDENTIFii stood out this year, 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.

"Our team has worked hard to make innovation a consistent thread throughout the business, and we are grateful for KPMG's commitment to tech trailblazers" 

Commenting on the competition, Barr said; “Africa’s tech market has seen exponential growth after the past few years and there is no doubt that this year’s participants have addressed real economic and business challenges – using tech as not only a solution driver, but to drive new opportunities that provide the continent with growth, efficiency and sustainability. Congratulations to iiDENTIFii on being being recognised as KPMG’s Tech Innovator in Africa, it is extremely well deserved, and we look forward to backing you on the global stage in a few months’ time.”