23 Dec 2025: A Year of Momentum Inside Innovation City

If there was one defining feature of 2025 inside Innovation City, it wasn’t noise or hype; it was follow-through.

Across fintech, AI, proptech, marketplaces, infrastructure and services, our members didn’t just talk about what they were building. They launched. They partnered. They expanded. They raised. They won.

Looked at individually, each milestone matters. Looked at together, a pattern emerges: when founders are surrounded by the right conversations, credibility, and community, momentum compounds.

As Innovation City turned four this year, the milestone felt like confirmation that momentum, when nurtured consistently, compounds.

Here’s how 2025 unfolded:

1. Capital Moving to Conviction

2025 wasn’t a year of easy money, but it was a year where capital followed clarity.

Several Innovation City members secured meaningful funding or played key roles in capital deployment across Africa:

Turn.io secured a $3.15M SAFE seed round in 2025, enabling the company to scale AI-powered conversational tools across the Global South. Building on this momentum, the team also launched its Chat for Health & AI Accelerator, supporting organisations developing AI-driven healthcare solutions.

Zazu raised a $1M pre-seed round and steadily built credibility with investors by focusing on SME fundamentals rather than flash, onboarding 300+ businesses and releasing data-backed finance reports.

Launch Africa Ventures led a €1M pre-seed round for Toum AI, expanded into the Middle East, and continued backing founders across Seed to pre-Series A, while co-founder Zachariah George was named among Africa’s 100 Most Influential Leaders in Startups & Investing and Managing Partner Janade Du Plessis wrote a bestseller!

E4EAfrica supported Conservio’s $1M funding round and signalled a strategic shift toward fewer, larger, impact-driven investments through Fund III.

Norrsken22 continued backing execution-led growth in 2025, leading Taager’s $6.75M funding round to support the scale of AI-powered e-commerce tools for social sellers across emerging markets.

BREEGA‘s portfolio momentum underscored growing investor confidence in deep tech, with portfolio company Alice & Bob raising a €100M Series B to advance fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Capital didn’t chase noise this year; it backed founders who could demonstrate real progress.

2. Enterprise Partnerships as Proof Points

Partnerships were one of the strongest signals of traction in 2025. Not announcements for optics but partnerships that unlocked scale.

FlexClub launched with Nedbank, crossed 1,100 cars on the road, and later partnered with fellow Innovation City member Experian, strengthening access to mobility and financial clarity for South Africans.

Smile ID deepened its role in digital trust through partnerships with Plumery and Mastercard, strengthening fraud prevention and onboarding across Africa’s digital banking ecosystem.

Happy Pay partnered with Peach Payments, expanding Buy Now, Pay Later access directly at checkout for South African merchants.

Sudor Apps signed a global deal with Universal Pictures Content Group, powering creator-led wellness platforms starting with Own Your Goals by Davina McCall.

NjiaPay quietly became core infrastructure for scaling businesses, powering Melon Mobile’s growth and supporting Ziwani’s Pan-African payments expansion.

These partnerships weren’t about optics; they were about trust.

3. Going Global (Without Losing Focus)

International expansion featured strongly in 2025 but notably, it was measured, intentional, and operational.

Autoscriber expanded into Belgium and Germany via Better Healthcare, while continuing to refine its clinical product offering.

Ruby Search Solutions (Ruby Digital) opened its Atlanta HQ, later rebranding as an AI-enabled growth partner focused on performance beyond Google and Meta.

Funti3r secured international clients and built expansion pipelines across Europe and the UAE, while founder Wisani Hlangwane earned Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 recognition and a spot in the Google for Startups Accelerator.

Vault22 prepared for a UAE launch while layering new investment products into its platform.

Travelstart strengthened its leadership bench in 2025 with the appointment of Andy Hedley as CEO, marking a new phase of strategic focus and operational scale for the pan-African travel platform.

4. Builders Who Turned Ideas Into Working Products

A defining feature of 2025 was how often Innovation City members moved from concept to execution, releasing, refining and scaling products that people could actually use.

Proply evolved into a full real estate intelligence engine while founder Wesley Roos openly shared the realities of trust-building in proptech.

Autoscriber released a major platform upgrade with faster performance, clearer notes, and 120+ validated medical templates.

Adbot launched multiple practical tools for SMEs; from a Google Ads Budget Calculator to Google Business Profile setups, backed by real campaign data and benchmark insights.

NjiaPay rolled out a WooCommerce plugin enabling global payments for South African merchants with zero additional cost.

NEXT176 launched Docaroo.ai through the NEXT ORBIT studio, reinforcing how corporates can build with startup speed.

Lumenii continued refining its behavioural science platform in 2025, combining diagnostics and recruitment to help organisations hire and grow talent with long-term fit in mind.

SkyLabX advanced its Travel-as-a-Service platform, PLUS, in 2025, extending Travelstart’s ecosystem with modular tools designed to support scalable, partner-driven travel experiences.

5. AI Doing Real Work

AI moved decisively from buzzword to backbone in 2025, especially among IC members.

Botlhale AI had a landmark year: Startup of the Year, AI & Data Excellence at the EPF Tech Awards, acceptance into Endeavor South Africa’s Local Scale Up Programme, and a clean sweep at the MMA SMARTIES. Multilingual, culturally aware AI proved its global relevance.

sens rebranded and launched sens-4, an AI-first consumer intelligence platform built on 2B+ data points, focused on predictive insight; the why, not just the what.

SlataDoc used AI to translate legal content directly into lawyers’ workflows, advancing access to justice.

PARAMOS applied AI to simplify real-world fieldwork operations; no disruption, just better flow.

AI didn’t replace people this year. It removed friction.

6. Infrastructure That Makes Life Easier

Some of the most impactful companies in 2025 weren’t consumer-facing; they were infrastructure.

Zazu positioned itself as a financial OS for African SMEs, pairing product depth with financial literacy.

Zeam expanded cross-border finance with physical kiosks, Zapper payments, and multi-currency wallets, unlocking everyday interoperability.

Bitprop surpassed 500+ micro-apartments built using recycled plastic bricks, creating income for township homeowners while exploring carbon credits and data plays.

MotionAds delivered over R20M in supplementary income to riders by turning mobility into media.

E Squared Investments‘ 2025 impact reporting highlighted disciplined capital deployment across education, energy and entrepreneurship, reinforcing its role in building long-term economic infrastructure.

Octoco expanded its footprint in financial services by acquiring TaxTim, strengthening accessible, AI-enabled tax tooling for South African SMEs, gig workers and individuals.

7. Recognition That Followed the Work

In 2025, recognition across Innovation City reflected outcomes, not ambition.

Botlhale AI was named Innovation City Startup of the Year and later won Gold, Silver and Bronze at the MMA SMARTIES Awards, recognising the commercial and cultural impact of its multilingual AI solutions.

Adbot, led by Michelle Geere, won Top Women Business in ICT & E-commerce at the Standard Bank Top Women Awards 2025, acknowledging sustained impact in making digital advertising accessible to SMEs.

Franc was named a Top 20 finalist in Africa’s Business Heroes, selected from more than 32,000 applicants across the continent.

Smile ID won the Enterprise Award at Africa Tech Summit and the Best RegTech Award at the South African FinTech Awards 2025, recognising its work in digital identity and fraud prevention across Africa’s digital economy.

Funti3r was awarded Best Enterprise Startup at AfricArena Johannesburg, recognising its enterprise delivery and international traction.

Autoscriber earned professional recognition in healthcare innovation, with co-founder Jacqueline Kazmaier named a Top 5 nominee at the AI4Her Health Awards.

FindHomes won People’s Choice at the Startup Club ZA Awards, reflecting strong user trust in its property intelligence platform.

EFT Corporation received the British Lion Large Corporate Award, recognising excellence in payments infrastructure supporting fintechs, telcos and retailers across Africa.

These wins made Innovation City the home of South Africa’s most prestigious startups!

8. The Quiet Advantage of Community

Threaded through all of this was something harder to quantify but easy to see.

Founders met partners in hallways. Investors watched companies evolve in real time. Ideas were pressure-tested early. Momentum was visible.

From the opening of the Swedish Honorary Consulate at Innovation City, to hosting global leaders at our venue, the ecosystem functioned as more than a venue. It functioned as infrastructure.

By the end of 2025, Innovation City was home to 62 member companies and 289 individual members, spanning fintech, AI, proptech, sustainability, traveltech, media and beyond.

And the results speak for themselves.

Looking Ahead

2025 showed that success doesn’t come from shouting louder. It comes from being in the right rooms, asking better questions, and shipping consistently. For Innovation City members, the year wasn’t about breakthrough moments; it was about sustained momentum.

And that’s the kind that lasts.

Onwards and upwards to 2026!

Want to join our winning vibe? Apply to become a member here.