Côte d'Ivoire Backs 32 Tech Firms With $9-18 Million Plan

Côte d'Ivoire has picked 32 companies for its flagship tech support programs — and promised to mobilize between 5 and 10 billion FCFA (roughly $9 to $18 million) to back them over 24 months. Digital Transition and Technological Innovation Minister Djibril Ouattara announced the winners on November 4 in Abidjan. The state received more than 150 applications and selected 14 startups for Ivoire Tech Next 15 and 18 digital SMEs for Ivoire Tech Scale Up, beating the initial target of 30.

Both programs run for 24 months under Ouattara's ministry. Next 15 targets startups at least a year old with a product already on the market. Scale Up serves digital SMEs with three to five full financial years behind them. Each cohort member gets support focused on artificial intelligence, access to financing and access to public procurement.

"Our ambition is clear — to move from an ecosystem of promising startups to a genuine base of solid, competitive technology companies capable of succeeding beyond our borders," said Alexia Amichia, the ministry's deputy director of entrepreneurship and tech startup development. "We don't just want to celebrate innovative companies. We want to help forge the future Ivorian and African tech champions."

What does the cohort actually look like?

The split is telling. Next 15 leans toward consumer and SME-facing startups. Scale Up tilts toward IT services firms that already sell to the state. Only three of the 32 winners are fintech — notable in a region where fintech dominates venture headlines. The list spans agriculture, health, real estate, AI and IT services, sectors where Ivorian demand runs strong and foreign competition stays thin.

Some names stand out:

• Djamo (Next 15): digital banking app claiming two million users in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, currently chasing a $40 million Series C.
• Waribei (Next 15): inventory advances for informal retailers, with €750,000 raised in pre-seed in 2024.
• BMI-WFS (Scale Up): operates TrésorPay and TrésorMoney, the Treasury's digital payment platforms.
• La Ruche Health (Next 15): AI health assistant on WhatsApp with over 75,000 users, winner of the 2025 Prix Galien Afrique.
• Grainotech (Next 15): farm tools from recycled materials, backed by a $200,000 Gates Foundation grant.
• Wilyz (Scale Up): assembles electric vehicles in Côte d'Ivoire and showed two models in December 2025.
• SaH Analytics (Scale Up): AI, data and satellite imagery firm that acquired French company data354 in 2025.

Seven Scale Up winners — Asernum, Digin Factory, Digital Afrique Telecom, ODV (OnPoint), SGCI, Sonec Africa and Talentys — have little public information, and the ministry's site doesn't present them.

Is the money enough?

Here's the uncomfortable arithmetic. Spread across 32 companies, 5 to 10 billion FCFA works out to 156-312 million FCFA each — about $260,000 to $520,000 per company. Djamo's April 2025 raise alone approached 10 billion FCFA ($17.1 million). And the figure is a mobilization target, not committed capital. The ministry hasn't yet said which banks or funds have signed, for how much, or on what terms. It also owes an accounting on how much of the 500 million FCFA ($830,000) facility announced at the first Ivoire Tech Forum actually reached startups.

The design has real strengths. Separating cohorts by maturity avoids scoring a two-year-old agritech against a fifteen-year-old integrator — a classic failure mode of national programs. Pairing the cohort with a cybersecurity center matters too: attacks on Ivorian systems jumped from 2 million to 27 million in three years, and Air Côte d'Ivoire reported a data leak in February 2026. The new Cybastion-Cisco center, opened November 5 alongside the American Digital Tower, covers West and Central Africa. Its companion program, Africa DigiEmpower from the THEYA Foundation and Cisco, aims to train 200,000 Ivorians in networks, cybersecurity and AI by 2030 — ambitious when Pascal Asseu of ESATIC says the country trains only about 600 digital experts, and ANSSI puts the cybersecurity need at 2,000 specialists.

Where the plan gets sticky

The categories blur. Djamo, with two million users, more than $31 million in equity raised and a Series C underway, is no young startup — yet it sits in Next 15. Cloud4Africa appears in Next 15 while its parent VEONE sits in Scale Up, giving one group two of 32 slots.

Public procurement is the sharpest double-edged sword. BMI-WFS already runs Treasury payments; Snedai built the universal health coverage software. Preferential access risks rewarding incumbents. Open, published tenders with clear criteria would widen the state's supplier pool instead of shortening the queue.

The first public test lands at the Ivoire Tech Forum, running November 11-13 at the Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire under the theme "Innovate to transform, accelerating growth through emerging technologies." Organizers target 6,000-8,000 participants, up from roughly 3,000 at the July 2025 edition. The Deal Room, putting startups face to face with investors, is where the mobilization target meets reality. Most Scale Up firms carry cash flows better suited to debt and revenue-based financing than equity — the route Julaya took to expand in Francophone Africa.

Amichia has set the right yardstick: "Our true success will not be measured solely by the number of startups supported, but by their ability to create jobs, win new markets and bring sustainable solutions to the challenges of our society." A public dashboard at 6, 12 and 24 months — revenue, jobs, public contracts, capital raised per winner — would make that measurable. Ivorian insurers and pension funds, with far larger balance sheets than CDC-CI Capital, could anchor local venture vehicles. And Côte d'Ivoire, the UEMOA's largest economy, should push its 32 winners toward all eight member markets, not just Abidjan.