The final Top 10 for Startup of the Year (SOTY) 2026 is officially locked in 🚀 From telehealth and travel fintech to proptech, food systems, edtech, agri-innovation, and hiring infrastructure, this year’s finalists reflect a sharp snapshot of the kinds of companies being built across South...
Out of 40 startups assessed in this year’s Startup of the Year process, ten have made it through to the final stage! Reaching this point means more than submitting a strong application. It means showing enough evidence - in traction, in clarity, and in execution -...
Across the Innovation City community, one tension is becoming harder to ignore: access is now decided in real time, but identity systems are still built for a slower world. Decisions about risk and access are increasingly driven by live data, not historical records, yet the way...
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...
