Fast Company is an American online publication that has been in existence for 27 years. It covers conversations on leadership and innovations in business, environmental and social issues, and entertainment and social issues. The publication also operates several franchises, one of which is the ‘Most Innovative Companies’ feature.
The Most Innovative Companies feature which has been in existence since 2008, is the magazine’s source of recognizing global organizations that are transforming industries and contributing fundamentally to society building. Considering that the Fast Company publication has an online readership of more than 40 million monthly page views, as well as some other benefits, African startups especially being awarded this recognition stand a lot to gain in terms of exposure and possibly attract funding.
This year, Fast Company released its list of the 10 most innovative companies in Europe, the Middle East, & Africa (EMEA) and three African startups made the list for spearheading innovative solutions on the continent.
The Three Most Innovative African Companies According to Fast Company
FirstCheck Africa
This startup is an early-stage venture capital fund committed to building several seats at the founders’ table for African women in tech. FirstCheck Africa is a women-led fund investing in pre-seed and seed-stage startups with at least one female founder or co-founder at the helm of affairs.
True to its function, the organization is led by two phenomenal women, Odunayo Eweniyi who is also the co-founder of a fintech startup- Piggyvest, and Eloho Omame. So far FirstCheck Africa has invested in eight female-led startups across four African countries that are tackling complex problems on the continent. According to FirstCheck, they are sector agnostic and focused on technology-enabled companies that are solving problems in large markets.
Sote
This Kenyan startup is using technology to resolve Africa’s supply chain issues. Sote, which means ‘all of us’ in Swahili, is a logistics platform that provides entrepreneurs with a stack of digital tools and services necessary for streamlining their shipping business operations.
Using the company’s software, entrepreneurs and business owners can manage freight clearing and forwarding as well as track shipment status, payment history, and delivery status of cargo from their account dashboards. Having served five countries so far and operating out of Kenya which accounts for one-sixth of Africa’s shipping market, Sote is poised to become the first digital gateway to the continent’s shipping industry.
Shuttlers
Operating out of Africa’s most populated city-Lagos, Shuttlers is tackling transportation challenges faced by Nigerians living in Lagos. The transportation system in Lagos is riddled with challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, ill-maintained public buses, and air pollution caused by carbon monoxide emitted by rickety vehicles.
Overall, Lagosians will tell you that commuting via danfo (public buses) is an annoying and stressful experience. This is the problem that Shuttlers is aiming to solve. By booking on the app, commuters get to access air-conditioned comfortable means of transportation as they shuttle to and fro the city.
This transport tech startup offers users a subscription-based service with a first-of-its-kind ‘no surge during peak periods or bad weather mode of pricing in Nigeria. Last year, Shuttlers raised a seed funding of 1.6M dollars which the company says would be invested in expanding business operations across other cities in Nigeria.
