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 -...
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...
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...
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...
At Innovation City, we often get to see founders at the moment where ideas harden into execution. In our last feature of founder Marnus Coetsee and Pro'Tech Rugby, the company was still in deep exploration mode, questioning what real innovation in rugby safety could look...
Innovation City’s Business Speed Dating event is back, and this time, it’s perfectly timed to ride the wave of the Africa Tech Festival! As Cape Town fills with the continent’s most dynamic founders, investors, and corporate dealmakers, Innovation City is once again hosting the room...
Building real connections at events isn’t always easy. That’s where Kernections comes in. Developed by Cape Town–based founders Scott Eyono and Omesan Naidoo, this AI-powered networking and event management platform is designed to make finding the right people effortless, whether at a 200-person summit or...
Introducing Docaroo.ai: Built for life’s messiest moments. Backed by NEXT176. And they're on the lookout for a founder! What started as a two-day sprint between NEXT176 and Byte Orbit turned into something bigger than expected: a venture built to fix the chaos of modern life admin....
