NBA Africa has announced the five prize-winning startups from the second edition of its Triple-Double Accelerator, spotlighting early-stage African innovators across sports, fitness, AI, blockchain and creative industries. The winners were revealed at the program’s Demo Day on December 5 at Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-Africa) in Kigali, following pitches from 10 finalists selected from more than 700 applicants spanning 32 countries.
The five startups awarded top honours are:
• Reborn (Morocco), a sports technology company offering comprehensive performance indicators to help athletes assess and optimise physical condition and on-field performance. Reborn secured first place, receiving $25,000 in cash, a slot in CMU-Africa’s 12-month Business Incubation Program valued at up to $70,000, $10,000 in Application Programming Interface (API) credits and an immersion day with the OpenAI engineering team.
• Fitclan (Egypt), a digital fitness platform using a flexible subscription model for individual and corporate clients, was awarded second place with $15,000 in cash plus incubation, API credits and an OpenAI immersion experience.
• Athlon Technology (Egypt), leveraging mobile and AI-based video analysis tools for amateur sports teams, which took third place with $5,000 in cash and the opportunity to join CMU-Africa’s incubation program alongside API credits and an OpenAI session.
• Atsur (Nigeria), a blockchain-powered platform promoting investment in African art and support for creative communities, was awarded fourth place and a CMU-Africa incubation entry.
• Songdis (Nigeria), offering digital distribution services tailored for independent African artists and labels, which rounded out the top five with incubation program access.
All five companies will join CMU-Africa’s 12-month Business Incubation Program as part of the league’s Innovation Hub initiative to help transform early-stage concepts into scalable, market-ready solutions. The top three winners also received API credits and immersion days with OpenAI, reflecting the accelerator’s partnerships with CMU-Africa, OpenAI, ServiceNow and ALX Ventures, which served as the official operating partner.
NBA Africa said the accelerator aims to bolster the continent’s tech ecosystem by connecting founders with capital, mentorship and global networks. NBA Africa CEO Clare Akamanzi praised the cohort’s innovative solutions as “shaping the future of sport and entertainment in Africa” and underlined the value of the support provided through the program.
The Triple-Double Accelerator is part of the league’s broader strategy to deepen engagement with Africa’s entrepreneurial landscape while driving growth across digital, sports and creative sectors.
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