CMU-Africa partners with NBA Africa to accelerate early-stage startups

Carnegie Mellon University Africa has partnered with the National Basketball Association Africa (NBA Africa) on a startup accelerator program that aims to support the next wave of early-stage African startup businesses transforming the sports and creative sectors. The NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator was launched by the league last year to support the continent’s technology ecosystem and the next generation of African entrepreneurs.

NBA Africa announced the partnership in a recent press release, as well as the 10 African startup companies that have been selected as finalists. The finalists will pitch their products to a panel of international industry leaders at an event, called Demo Day, which will be held at CMU-Africa in Kigali, Rwanda on December 5.

Five winners will be chosen to receive financial support and the opportunity to join CMU-Africa’s 12-month Business Incubation Program in their Innovation Hub, which helps African tech startups transform proof-of-concept prototypes and preliminary market assessments into scalable, market-ready products and services.

The 10 finalists who will pitch on Demo Day include:

• Athlon Technology (Egypt) aims to leverage accessible mobile technology and AI to provide video analysis for amateur and budget-constrained sports teams while addressing a market gap with a user-friendly, hardware-light solution.
• Atsur (Nigeria) leverages blockchain technology to promote investment in African art and support artists and art communities.
• CoLab (South Africa) is a platform that brings together creatives, entrepreneurs and industry professionals, providing a space to connect, manage projects and bring ideas to life.
• Contestify (Nigeria) is an all-in-one platform that streamlines contest management, offering real-time judging, transparent scoring and instant payouts.
• Fitclan (Egypt) is a digital fitness hub that leverages a flexible subscription model for individuals and corporate clients.
• Novate (Morocco) offers a unique, immersive virtual reality (VR) football viewing experience with features such as seat selection, camera switching, social voice chat, and live stats.
• ProPath Sports (Kenya) revolutionizes athlete discovery in Kenya with data-driven talent identification; its iSTEAM program covers all aspects of talent development.
• Reborn (Morocco) offers comprehensive performance indicators that give athletes deep insights into their physical condition and on-field performance, essential for identifying strengths, areas for improvement, and optimizing overall performance.
• Safia Health (Kenya) offers personalized training regiments that integrate fitness, recovery and mental wellbeing tracking into a unified platform, offering value to athletes and coaches.
• SongDis (Nigeria) provides comprehensive digital distribution and services tailored for African independent artists and labels. 

“The quality of this year’s applications reflects the incredible talent and creativity among Africa’s young entrepreneurs, as well as the important role that the sport and creative industries are playing in the continent’s development,” said NBA Africa CEO Clare Akamanzi in the press release. “These startups represent the bold spirit of innovation rising across the continent—where creativity meets purpose, and ideas have the power to scale beyond borders.”

Learn more about the Innovation Hub at CMU-Africa

The Innovation Hub supports startups that are developing and commercializing technology-enabled products aimed at addressing well-defined market needs with strong potential for profitability, inclusivity, and scale. In addition to their Business Incubation Program, the Innovation Hub operates the TechSkills Marketplace Program which connects African startups with world-class talent. This program enables African startups to host CMU-Africa students as interns. To support this collaboration, CMU-Africa co-funds the internships together with the startups, helping cover the interns’ compensation.