In Brief

• African blockchain startups secured 10% of Base’s $1 million grant pool, with five winners advancing DeFi, payments, and data-forensics solutions.

• ZeroCard and NedaPay tackle payment challenges by bridging crypto to everyday use in West and East Africa.

• SandWorm Labs, Bitsave, and Rovify highlight diverse use cases—from on-chain analytics to decentralized savings and creator event platforms.

Base recently announced its Base Batch 001 winners, and five Africa blockchain projects snagged 10% of the $1 million grant pool.

Base Chain has had an active role in building Africa’s developer community, and this recent win is proof that Africa has the ingenuity, grabbing attention globally while still creating solutions tailored for Africa’s needs.

Five African Startups Shine at Base Batches Demo Day 001

The Base Batches Demo Day 001 is a buildathon-to-incubator pipeline seeking out innovative solutions built on Base Chain. Its recent cohort attracted over 5000 projects, each seeking to attain the necessary funding and recognizing to go to the next stage.

The competition was stiff, with 50 projects selected as the winners distributed under three tiers. The first-place winner received $100,000, nine second-place projects earned $40,000, and thirty third-place winners took home $20,000.

Out of the stiff competition, five African blockchain startups stood out, walking away with 10% of the needed funding to take it to the next stage.

Below are the five African decentralized projects representing the continent’s unique talent for solving local issues with blockchain technology.

ZeroCard

Providing digital assets with tangible elements is a core factor for adoption, and ZeroCard provided the solution to just that. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, Zero Card is a startup with a singular goal to revolutionize payments with a crypto debit card similar to a normal debit card. Its main selling point was bridging the gap between decentralization and everyday use, enabling users to spend crypto like cash at point-of-sale terminals, ATMs and even online.

Its unique take aligns with Nigeria’s $59 billion markets, giving traders, builders and crypto enthusiasts the means to cash out anytime.

Bitsave Protocol

With Bitcoin becoming a viable investment tool attracting global entities like Strategy BlackRock and other institutions, the need for decentralized payment platforms only grew. BitSave is an African blockchain protocol to digitize local savings and investments throughout the continent. The Nigerian-based platform focuses on providing regions with limited traditional banking infrastructure with the means to save and grow their saving.

SandWorm Labs

With blockchain development steadily becoming an independent sector, SandWorm Labs has developed a way to gain on-chain data and forensics easily.

Their main selling point is querying chain data like devs query SQL data, giving researchers, devs and data nerds to interact with on-chain intelligence.

CHECK OUT:Inside Base East Africa: Startups Revolutionizing Finance and Legal Tech

NedaPay

NedaPay is an East African-centred platform focusing on providing easy, cheap and fast payment solutions to the informal market. The platform’s mobile-first approach aims to empower East African communities with products like stablecoins to lighten the financial burden most experienced. The platform is already leveraging local success stories like cNGN stablecoins, demonstrating its determination to take East Africa to the next level.

Rovify

Rovify is an on-chain event platform that empowers African creators to own their stage and connect directly with audiences.

With Africa’s creator community expanding by the day, monetizing and earning from one’s skills only grows the demand for blockchain within the country.

The Role of Base Chain in Africa’s Technological Evolution

It’s not new for us to mention that Base Chain has grown from a mere ecosystem for builders to an active participant in Africa’s blockchain ecosystem. The platforms have hosted a variety of on-chain applications, each utilizing solutions around stablecoins, AI, mini-apps, entertainment, DeFi, and vibe coding.

The Base Batches program is among its various initiatives providing blockchain funding, necessary tools and networking opportunities for startups. The $20,000 grand award to these African blockchain projects proves that we have solutions tailored to our needs.

East Africa and West Africa are Base’s main focal points for building an active community of developers via hackathons, workshops, and online events. Decentralized applications are the future of technology, and Base Chain has made it clear that Africa might be the place to be. It’s mainly about achieving real distribution, and with the recent announcement of Base App, these projects might get a chance to be part of an “everything App”.

Utility is what drives such applications within the continent, solving local problems within the continent. For instance, NedaPay provides cheaper transactions throughout East Africa, while ZeroCard gives our customers the means to spend hard-earned finances.

Their journey from buildathon participants to grant recipients is a catalyst for growth, and Base is here to establish the foundation we require.