02 Apr Innovation City Cape Town and ayoba Are Helping Transform Small Businesses Together

Award winning African superapp platform ayoba have partnered with South Africa’s international innovation collaboration space Innovation City Cape Town.

ayoba joins a community of digital start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, entrepreneurs, world changers and innovators in the heart of the Mother City: According to Startup Genome’s recently published 2021 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER), the city accounts for 60% of startups in South Africa.

“We are excited to be moving to Innovation City. It’s a great venue with a great story; a place where cool people can be innovative and build relationships with a strong sense of community. And in a similar way, ayoba’s mission is to do this very same thing: We are continuously looking for promising ventures that would benefit from being part of the platform and could bring engaging content and business solutions to our user base. We also feel that our platform, with its microapp and channel features is a great way for startups to get traction in the market and to connect to millions of ayoba users across the continent in a quick and cost effective way,” says Eero Tarjanne, ayoba’s Head of Business & Ecosystem Development.

ayoba: Made by Africans for Africans 

ayoba is a free instant messaging superapp used by millions across the African continent, offering users access to music, games and digital and rich media services through channels and micro apps, embedded within a single user platform. It boasts access to over 180 content channels which range from Sports, News, Music & Artists, Health & Wellness, Careers, Fashion & Beauty to Education and Travel. 

At the end of 2021, the ayoba app reached an impressive 10 million monthly active users, a feat they managed to achieve in just two years. 

“Our progress in 2021 was considerable; this growth is due to the hard work of our team, and the loyalty and enthusiasm of our users, who are always our first priority.  We look forward to even bigger growth in 2022, as we see progress from the new features, content and general improvement that will be launching throughout the year,” said Burak Akinci, ayoba Chief Executive Officer. 

Innovation City: A Sound Plan for Future Business Success  

Innovation City is a home for digital start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, entrepreneurs, world changers and hard-working dreamers. The concept strives to create a world-class network helping accelerate digital innovation in South Africa. Through fostering co-creation and a solid partnership with Epicenter Stockholm and its 500+ membership companies, Innovation City helps fast track Cape Town’s and South Africa’s business ambitions. 

“We provide an environment and a platform where corporates, entrepreneurs, VCs and students  learn, share and create exciting business ideas and together become better much faster. 

We curate the space where our members get help from across the office; be it legal aid, accounting, auditing, funding, or public relations; we have all of the magic one needs to see an innovative idea come to life,” said Stephan Ekbergh, Co-Founder of Innovation City. 

 “We are industry agnostic, with our sole aim being to accelerate innovation through collaboration by bringing the right people together. My vision is to create an environment conducive to collaboration where funders, start ups, scale ups, and corporates can collaborate and in turn deliver jobs and economic prosperity,” said co-founder Kieno Kammies.

A Dynamic Collaboration  

To kickstart the dynamic collaboration between Innovation City and ayoba, the Innovation City team have launched a ‘Startup of the Year’ competition, where the criteria includes amazing South African startups in their first years of operation, judged by an incredible panel of business leaders on innovation, scalability and impact.