Connected Places Catapult launches African innovation project

Connected Places Catapult (CPC), which aims to grow businesses with innovations in mobility services and the built environment, has announced the launch of its Urban Links Africa (ULA) project at an event in Cape Town, South Africa. 

The project’s primary goal is to facilitate a sustainable collaboration between the UK, South Africa and Kenya by bringing together cities and tech ecosystems through equitable partnerships and industry investment, to address African cities’ key challenges and improve life for citizens.

Funded by Innovate UK, ULA – which began in September 2019 and will run until April 2021 – will pilot market-led solutions to key urban challenges in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu in Kenya; and Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa.

The ULA programme will recruit innovative technology companies in Kenya, South Africa and the UK to deploy joint tech solutions to these urban challenges. Capacity-building workshops will be run in tandem to support African cities to become innovation-ready.

CPC will encourage UK, Kenyan and South African ecosystems to collaborate, share expertise and develop sustainable long-term partnerships, as well as running workshops in the six cities to secure a common learning baseline and ensure all parties are ‘innovation-ready’. The project will engage with African tech hubs to upskill them on urban innovation and via knowledge transfer missions to the UK.

“Each city will choose an urban challenge, and we will invite Kenyan, South African and UK SMEs to propose solutions to these challenges,” said Nicola Yates OBE, CEO of Connected Places Catapult. “We are very excited to embark on this project.”

CPC will partner UK and African innovators via partnerships with tech hubs and will continually monitor the impact of these projects and assist the process over six months.

Sir Michael Bear, Senior Advisor to Connected Places Catapult and former Lord Mayor of London, said: “It’s important to generate long-term improvements to citizens’ wellbeing through this programme. We will monitor the impact on society, the economy and the environment, to create a business case for scaling these projects.”