The winner of the Angola Innovation Summit’s (AiS) startups category will be guaranteed a place in the final of the 928 Challenge, according to the organiser of the Macau-based annual competition that brings together start-ups and universities from China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
Angolan ‘startups’ will be “closer to other markets, in which they can identify and establish partnerships and, perhaps, attract investment,” said AiS director José Bucassa.
Most of the ‘startups’ that competed in the first two editions of the 928 Challenge “with greater added value or that are in a more advanced state normally come from more developed countries,” explained to Lusa Marco Duarte Rizzolio, co-founder of the 928 Challenge.
“It is important for the 928 [Challenge] that all Portuguese-speaking countries are well represented,” said Rizzolio, who is also a professor at City University of Macau.
The project by a team from Eduardo Mondlane University, in Mozambique, to produce biogas from waste in poultry farms reached second place in the second edition of the competition last October.
According to a report released by Partech Partners on Tuesday, venture capital funding for Africa grew by 8% in 2022 to reach US$6.5 billion (€6 billion), while global funding fell by 35%.
Even so, the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) “are still far behind the English-speaking markets, such as Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria”, but not for lack of quality, Rizzolio noted.
The academic blamed the lack of knowledge of Western investors regarding the PALOP, “the language barrier,” and the size of the Portuguese-speaking market in Africa.
An alternative, said Rizzolio, is the bet on investors in China, “the second largest market in the world for venture capital funds.”
At the end of November, the 928 Challenge organised an ‘online’ session where six Portuguese ‘startups’ introduced their business projects to venture capital funds in China.
Macau followed China’s zero-COVID policy until mid-December, with the imposition of restrictions and quarantines on arrival, something that prevented the finalists of the first two editions of the 928 Challenge from going to the SAR to present their projects.
“That was always the great ambition,” underlined Marco Duarte Rizzolio: to allow Portuguese-speaking ‘startups’ to travel to Macau and “visit other ‘startups’ and venture capital fund investors.”
“It is too early to say whether it will be possible this year. Everything will depend on the budget for this edition,” admitted the coordinator of the 928 Challenge.
The contest is jointly organised by the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macau) and several universities in Macau and the Greater Bay Area and Brazil’s State University of Rio de Janeiro.
