Songdis, Fitclan, Reborn, and two others join CMU-Africa’s Business Incubation programme

Five startups from the second edition of the NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator have secured spots in Carnegie Mellon University Africa’s 12-month Business Incubation Programme. The selection was announced at Demo Day in Kigali, where ten finalists pitched products built for Africa’s sports and creative sectors.

The Triple-Double Accelerator, which NBA Africa launched last year, is part of the league’s wider effort to strengthen the continent’s technology ecosystem and back the next generation of African founders.

The selected companies are Reborn from Morocco, Fitclan from Egypt, Athlon Technology from Egypt, Atsur from Nigeria, and Songdis from Nigeria. They will receive financial support and take part in CMU-Africa’s incubation programme, which helps founders move from prototype to market-ready products with a support package valued at up to $70,000.

Conrad Tucker, director of CMU-Africa, said the pitches reflected strong creativity and technical depth. He added that the partnership with NBA Africa aligns with the university’s goal of supporting talent that can shape Africa’s digital economy. He congratulated the finalists and said the winning teams will play a major role in the university’s Innovation Hub.

The top three startups received additional backing. Each earned 10,000 dollars in API credits and an immersion day with OpenAI’s engineering team at the company’s headquarters.

This year’s finalists were chosen from more than 700 applications from 32 African countries. Their pitches were judged by Conrad Tucker, OpenAI Africa Lead Emmanuel Lubanzadio, and ServiceNow Africa executives Cheick Camara and Nikki van Gasse.