Qualcomm Incorporated has announced the selection of 10 early-stage startups for the fourth edition of the Qualcomm Make in Africa Mentorship Programme, part of the broader Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform.
The selected startups were drawn from a record pool of over 1,200 applications across more than 45 African countries, chosen for their ability to apply advanced connectivity and processing technologies to innovative solutions.
The 2026 cohort spans industries including agriculture, assistive technology, smart cities, smart infrastructure, electric vehicle transportation, and education.
The ten selected startups are Amperra Charging Company (Namibia), an AI-driven smart EV charging platform; Anatsor Ltd (Nigeria), a digital poultry management system; D-Olivette Labs (Nigeria), a bio-intelligence platform for sustainable agriculture; Mindora Corporation (Zimbabwe), a Braille keyboard solution for visually impaired users; MVUTU (Republic of the Congo), a solar-powered IoT cold storage solution; QualiKeeper Investments Ltd (Zambia), an AIoT livestock monitoring system; SafeSip (Tanzania), a smart water access and monitoring solution; Sesi Technologies Ltd (Ghana), an AI-powered cocoa quality assessment device; TWave Ltd (Uganda), an automated solar-powered fish feeding system; and Zerobionic (Kenya), an assistive robotics solution for persons with disabilities.
The equity-free programme offers participants a range of resources, including product design guidance on Arduino AI platforms, one-on-one technical mentorship, business coaching, and engineering consultations. Startups will also receive free intellectual property education through L2Pro Africa and patent filing consultation from Adams & Adams, Africa’s leading IP law firm. Those who file patents during the programme can claim up to $5,000 in filing fee reimbursements.
All participating startups will receive a $5,000 stipend upon successful completion of programme requirements. At the programme’s Finale, one startup will be awarded a Social Impact Fund grant through Qualcomm for Good.
Speaking to this the President for the Middle East and Africa and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Qualcomm, Wassim Chourbaji, described the quality of this year’s cohort as a reflection of Africa’s maturing innovation landscape.
“Four years into Qualcomm Make in Africa, what stands out is not only the growing number of applications we receive, but the increasing sophistication of the solutions being built,” he said.
“These startups are pushing the boundaries of what technologies such as Edge AI and 5G can enable, and how they can be deployed at scale across the continent.”
Fabio Violante, Vice President and General Manager of Arduino at Qualcomm Technologies Inc., also highlighted the role of hardware in enabling rapid prototyping. “By bringing perception, decision-making, and actuation onto a single, affordable board, founders can prototype and deploy edge-AI solutions directly where challenges exist — in farms, clinics, factories, and cities,” he said.
With its fourth edition, Qualcomm reaffirms its commitment to empowering Africa’s deep-technology ecosystem through mentorship, training, and intellectual property generation.
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