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Three African businesses -- two from Kenya and one from Morocco -- made the 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneers list. The Technology Pioneers cohort of 2018 brings together 61 early-stage companies from around the world.

Kenya-based enterprise, CarePay, which was founded in 2014, developed a mobile health platform known as M-Tiba for health financing and delivery, while BitPesa, founded in 2013, created a digital financial solution that moves money directly from one bank account to a foreign bank without having to convert to the US dollar and also accepts and settles via bitcoin. Morocco’s WaystoCap, founded in 2015, created a marketplace for businesses to trade goods in Africa.

A 52-percent majority of the 61 early-stage companies recognized for their design, development and deployment of potentially world-changing innovations and technologies come from outside the United States, and a quarter of the total is female-led.

BitPesa and WaystoCap are among the 25 percent that is female-led. The former is led by Elizabeth Rossiello and the other by Niama El Bassunie.

WEF launched the Technology Pioneer community in 2000 to recognise companies that use new technologies to impact business and society.
According to WEF, the 2018 list is comprised of companies that address many societal challenges in the hope that technology will be a force for good in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Innovation comes from all corners of the earth and from a very diverse group of entrepreneurs, and with this selection we recognize that,” said Head of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Member of the Managing Board at the World Economic Forum, Cheryl Martin. “The next step is to help these Pioneers bring their solutions to complex world-critical problems to global markets and to take action for the public good.”

“Technology and start-ups are not just about computer software, consumer apps and social networks,” said Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “Technology Pioneers 2018 are tackling complex challenges such as environmental sustainability, efficient energy use and access to healthcare.”

Among the other nations to host Pioneers are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, as well as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Forum recognizes a limited number of companies each year as Technology Pioneers and incorporates them into its initiatives, activities and events, where they bring cutting-edge insights and novel perspectives to world-critical discussions.

Companies selected in the past include Airbnb, bluebird bio, Bloom Energy, Cyberdyne, Editas Medicine, Foundation Medicine, Google, Kaggle, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Proteus Digital Health, Rethink Robotics, Scribd, Spotify, Twitter and Wikimedia.