South African Startup Awards Open Entries for 2026

In Short

Startup Club ZA has opened entries for the 2026 South African Startup Awards. The awards focus on early stage South African tech startups and will select winners across 11 category areas, plus a People’s Choice Award.

What Happened

The South African Startup Awards are now in their fourth year. Winners will be named across 11 vertical specific categories, including fintech, e-health, ed-tech, AI and big data, deeptech, climate and sustainability, and informal market.

Past winners named by the organisers include Jem, Float, JOBJACK, Happy Pay and Delivery Ka Speed.

To qualify, startups must be tech ventures under five years old with a majority presence in South Africa. They must also be pre-Series A, have an active product in market, and be either post-revenue or showing substantial user growth. Deeptech entries are exempt from the post-revenue or user growth criteria. Startups can enter up to two categories.

Public voting will run from November 2 to 6. Voting will help determine shortlists of up to five startups per category. The startup with the most confirmed votes will win the People’s Choice Award.

A panel of more than 20 founders, investors and ecosystem leaders will then score finalists on innovation, scalability, traction, impact, team and short term prospects.

Startup Club ZA founder Mathew Marsden said, “The calibre of founders building in South Africa keeps rising, and they deserve a national stage that reflects that.”

Winners will be announced at a live event in Cape Town on November 18. Winners will receive a trophy, an invitation to a winners’ dinner in early 2027, and national media coverage.

Startups can apply until October 30.

Why It Matters

For founders, the rules clarify what the awards are looking for, pre-Series A teams with a product already in the market.

For the ecosystem, the process blends public voting with panel judging, and makes category winners and a People’s Choice winner part of the same programme.