ZINDI
to Run Africa’s First
Inter-University AI Hackathon Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning competition platform Zindi is set to run UmojaHack Africa, the first-ever inter-university AI hackathon for students across Africa, in March.
UMOJAHACK AFRICA, is open to student teams at universities across Africa and will consist of a network of hackathon events that will be held simultaneously across the continent on 21 March. Zindi anticipates that up to 20 universities and over 300 students will participate in the hackathon. Universities in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Ghana are among those that have confirmed participation in the event. Student teams of up to four people will represent their respective universities in the hackathon where they will compete for cash and in-kind prizes for the top three student teams, as well as for their universities. Zindi will offer a total prize pool of $2000 to the top three
teams, while the winning universities will get a share of $15 000. Winners will be determined based on their ranking on the Zindi leader board which will objectively rank all solutions. UmojaHack Africa is organised around three machine learning challenges of varying difficulty that speak to uniquely African challenges. These challenges will address issues that include gender, conservation, mobility, financial inclusion and agriculture. Technical content of the challenges may include computer vision, predictive analytics, classification, natural language processing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data. UmojaHack Africa is sponsored by African Bank and Alliance4ai with support from Data Science Nigeria. ai
GreenTec Capital Partners Invests in Moroccan Recruitment Platform Kwiks
1ST QUARTER 2020
German venture capital firm GreenTec Capital Partners has announced that it has made an
SYNAPSE
12
undisclosed investment in Casablanca-based online recruitment platform Kwiks. KWIKS WAS launched in 2014 by founder and CEO Amine Khayatei Houssani. The startup’s platform helps users quickly recruit top-tier talent from its own curated talent pool as well as from public and private data sources. Using machine learning, Kwiks has developed an applicant tracking system that suggests matching profiles based on previous requests. Besides Morocco, the startup has operations in Belgium and France. Kwiks plans to expand its reach in Africa and to diversify its Francophone niché to include Anglophone candidates. The transaction marks GreenTec Capital’s first deal in the North African startup ecosystem. ai Kwiks founder and CEO Amine Khayatei Houssani with Zineb Khayatei
