KPMG Private Enterprise crowns Khula! as Africa’s top tech innovator

KPMG South Africa has announced the winners of its four-month-long KPMG Private Enterprise Tech Innovator in Africa competition, which sought to recognise Africa’s most successful technology innovators across the continent, with Khula! coming out as the leading tech innovator.

This global competition, which was created to include 16 countries across most major regions of the world, invited businesses to pitch their innovations and present their growth ambitions to panels of local and global industry experts, in the hopes of being recognised as a leading tech innovator.

“We opened the competition to Africa in February this year and received 75 applications from across the continent. The response was phenomenal, as was the talent and innovation across these businesses,” says KPMG partner and private enterprise head Alan Barr.

He notes that 30 applicants were then chosen, based on the competition criteria, to proceed to the judges’ scoring round.

From there, ten finalists were invited to pitch at a virtual event, held on June 30, where Khula! was announced as the overall Africa winner.

Khula! was chosen owing to innovation it has shown in its business, and for how sustainable this business model has proven to be – from a start-up to a company that now has incredible growth potential, KPMG acclaims.

As the winner, Khula! will now participate in a global final at the Web Summit Conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, in November, together with the winners of each of the participating countries.

Khula! will have the chance to network with other industry experts and tech innovators across the globe.

“I am incredibly humbled that we have been chosen as the overall winner to represent Africa on the global stage, more especially because we are in the process of rolling out the Khula! Inputs App.

“None of this would have been possible without my incredible team. The competition was incredibly intense and a lot of the finalists were at a far more advanced stage than we are – this makes it even more important for us to bring our A-game in Lisbon,” comments Khula! CEO Karidas Tshintsholo.