The African Centre for Cities (ACC), in partnership with CG Philanthropies, hosted an introductory and networking session between Anousheh Ansari, CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation and a small group of investors and academia on Monday, 13 May 2024. Held at UCT’s Bremner building, the purpose of the engagement was to kickstart a conversation around the establishment of XPRIZE competitions that are relevant to and inclusive of African challenges and innovations.

Since it’s founding in 1994, XPRIZE has launched 30 competitions with a total prize purse of $519 million. Over 35 000 innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs from around the globe have competed to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges in space & exploration, climate & energy, learning, health, biodiversity & conservation, deep tech, and water, food & waste.

“Part of the reason I’m here is to see how we can grow presence and the density of teams that can participate in our competitions…We need to identify what are the barriers and why they [investors] are not investing in African tech.” – Anousheh Ansari, CEO: XPRIZE Foundation

Ansari, an engineer who is also the first Iranian-born and first Muslim woman astronaut aboard the International Space Station, said the core of their operations is to use their platform to “bring risky, innovative technology” that is focused on solving humanity’s great challenges. “Our goal as XPRIZE is to accelerate and drive innovation and capital towards solving these big problems that humanity faces…We don’t award ideas, we award actual solutions that can be demonstrated,” she said.

While the competitions have seen entrants from Africa, with some South Africans making it to the top 100, there has been minimal progression due to lack of investor support. Ansari explained that they are looking to create hubs locally that will invest and support the teams. She said: “Part of the reason I’m here is to see how we can grow presence and the density of teams that can participate in our competitions…We need to identify what are the barriers and why they [investors] are not investing in African tech. If we understand that, as XPRIZE we can help mitigate those risks.”

After an interactive session, the invitees echoed similar sentiments, saying it was a good starting point to learn about XPRIZE and their work, especially in relation to the continent. Dr. Linda Mtwisha, Executive Director: Research at UCT said she hopes this was the beginning of more conversations towards the right direction, as XPRIZE’s vision aligns with the institution’s 2030 agenda. Mtwisha remarked: “We want to contribute towards generating solutions for African problems by African researchers and place our solutions and knowledge generation on the international front.

“It was important to host XPRIZE today because at the heart of ACC’s work is to make sure that scientific research is translated into things that can land in the market and change people’s lives.” – Edgar Pieterse: ACC Director

“Today was about understanding how we increase the participation of African scholars in XPRIZE competitions; it also helps us to start the conversation at UCT on what it is that we need to do to create an enabling environment to ensure innovators’ ideas move from research to innovation into the marketplace,” Mtwisha continued.

Explaining the importance of facilitating this meeting, ACC Director Edgar Pieterse said: “It was important to host XPRIZE today because at the heart of ACC’s work is to make sure that scientific research is translated into things that can land in the market and change people’s lives. What XPRIZE foundation has done is to figure out a model to help scientists, entrepreneur, investors to make sure that good ideas find their way into the lives of people.”