GIFTY AI, a Nigerian startup that serves as an AI-powered sales growth assistant for e-commerce businesses, has won the Africa Fast Award at North Star, GITEX GLOBAL 2023 in Dubai.
Led by Victor D. Akpan, GIFTY is Africa’s first AI sales growth assistant for medium, small and micro enterprises using e-commerce platforms. The startup empowers small business owners, who often lack resources to invest in conventional marketing and sales teams, to establish their e-commerce sites in under five minutes and secure orders from customers who are willing to buy from them.
It assists e-commerce businesses in automating their marketing and sales initiatives, allowing them to concentrate on expanding their companies. GIFTY enables registered merchants to utilize AI technology to maintain consistency in their marketing campaigns, and thus expand their activities in both local and global markets.
"I only talked about technology, Africa, and the future. And I won! Representing Africa in the Middle East was a tough one for me. I guess I followed my star from Africa to Expand North Star, Dubai," said Victor D. Akpan, CEO of GIFTY AI.
The founder of GIFTY AI stated that he competed with 1,799 participants from over 100 countries. In the Africa Fast Award category, there were 20 African startups competing in the semi-final stage. Akpan stressed that out of all the 14 categories, he "emerged as the only winner from Africa who made it to the finals."
This accomplishment not only earned the startup the esteemed title, but also a noteworthy award of $8,000 in acknowledgment of its innovative solutions and approach to e-commerce.
According to the entrepreneur, Africa is rapidly emerging as the largest market for merchants to succeed in. To fully capitalize on these opportunities, he noted, there is a need to harness innovative and advanced technologies, thus revolutionizing the e-commerce industry on the continent.
"We believe the timing is perfect for us to leverage emerging and cutting-edge technologies to disrupt the ecommerce industry for over 90 million MSMEs within Africa. We are building gifty.com.ng to let the world know that Africa is taking over!” he said.
More than 25 Nigerian startups were featured in the North Star Startup Expo, which officially launched one day prior to the GITEX Expo on October 16. Additionally, the West African nation was represented by a delegation from both the public and private sectors.
GITEX Global, the event's organizer, announced that Morocco will host GITEX Africa in 2024 for the second consecutive year. GITEX Africa offers a platform for African startups to present their products and services to the global tech community.