Entries for Startup of the Year 2026 are now closed! At this stage, it’s no longer about who applied; it’s about who holds up under scrutiny. Because once the Top 10 is announced, the lens shifts. Founders aren’t pitching to a general audience anymore - they’re...
Winning Innovation City’s Startup of the Year (SOTY) isn’t just about the accolade; it has become a proven "unfair advantage" for South Africa’s most ambitious founders. Since its inception, the competition has acted as a high-signal filter, taking startups with early traction and catapulting them...
At Innovation City, we spend a lot of time talking about growth; how businesses acquire customers, build products, and scale. But there’s a layer that sits underneath all of that, quietly determining whether that growth actually materialises: Payments. Not as infrastructure, but as a system that...
At WiT (Web in Travel) Africa 2026, one thing was very clear: the next era of travel will not be shaped by technology in isolation. It will be shaped by the tension between technology, trust, infrastructure, and local complexity. Setting the tone for the day, stephan...
Every year, we get a clearer picture of what’s actually being built in South Africa. Not in theory. Not in decks. In real businesses with real customers, real traction, and real pressure. That’s what Startup of the Year has become at Innovation City; a filter for signal. And...
There is a quiet contradiction at the heart of the internet. We move seamlessly across borders - opening accounts, sending money, applying for services, building businesses that operate in multiple markets at once. Yet the systems that are meant to verify who we are remain stubbornly...
For the third year running, WiT (Web in Travel) Asia's leading digital travel media and events platform, returns to Cape Town for its Africa edition. But 2026 is different. This is WiT's 20th anniversary year, and the gathering at Innovation City is structured not as...
Innovation City brings together companies working at the frontier of technology, business, and customer experience. One of our newest members, Nineteen58, is an AI-native services company focused on building custom AI agents that help enterprises solve real operational problems, particularly in customer acquisition, service, and...
Innovation City brings together founders, creatives, and technology teams building globally relevant businesses. Among them is Plan.Net Creativenest South Africa, a digital-first creative studio and part of the international House of Communication network. Working across social-first creativity, digital campaigns, UX/UI design, and scalable content production, the...
Inspired by insights from Devina Maharaj, Head of API Channel, Investec At Innovation City, we see hundreds of founders and operators wrestling with the same issue every week: how to scale operations without drowning in admin, manual work, or outdated financial processes. While AI, automation and cloud...
