Hot startup of the month: South Africa's The Awareness CompanyHot startup of the month: South Africa's The Awareness Company

Africa's cloud computing market is projected to reach approximately US$20 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% expected through to 2031, as per a report by 6Wresearch.

This growth is driven by the digital transformation of various sectors, including finance, healthcare, and education, as well as an increase in Internet penetration.

In this dynamic landscape, a South African Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup, The Awareness Company, is dedicated to facilitating cloud adoption across the continent.

Founded in 2018, the SaaS startup turns business data into powerful insights to improve operations and sustainability efforts.

Founders Priaash Ramadeen, Shazia Vawda and Estelle Lubbe – having previously worked together within research, development and innovation in the public sector – wanted to solve real-world problems through a SaaS platform.

"We decided to leave our comfortable jobs and try something new. Our vision was to create this horizontal SaaS product for a wide array of organizations," Ramadeen, the co-founder and CEO of The Awareness Company, told Connecting Africa.

The Awareness Company leverages data-driven storytelling to enhance the efficiency and impact of individuals, communities, and organizations.

Related:Four cloud trends on the rise in 2025

Its technology, HYDRA, integrates artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics to develop solutions for agriculture and conservation, safety and security, as well as smart buildings and cities.

HYDRA at work

HYDRA gives its users automated awareness, analysis and insights so users can save time, make money and create impact.

"This means HYDRA gives users total awareness by being completely agnostic of data, sensors, systems or connectivity. It automates time-consuming and expensive steps between data collection and action," Ramadeen explained.

"Additionally, HYDRA is accessible, as it removes the need for technical expertise, meaning anyone can understand their data, whether small, medium or large enterprise," the CEO explained.

Ramadeen said the product is user-friendly and provides insight and awareness in a visually appealing, easy-to-use, social media-style mobile and desktop application.

HYDRA is utilized across multiple sectors, including agriculture and conservation, where it enhances efficiency and sustainability in farming and conservation efforts.

In the realm of safety and security, HYDRA improves measures and reduces risks for infrastructure and operations. Additionally, it optimizes the management of buildings and urban areas, leading to better resource utilization and sustainability.

By leveraging AI, IoT, and data analytics, HYDRA helps organizations to make informed decisions, streamline operations and achieve their sustainability goals.

Investment to enhance capabilities

The company recently raised $1.6 million in seed funding from investors such as NEXT176, Holocene, Catalyst Fund, E Squared, Aions, and Jozi Angels.

"Our recent fundraising, which is our first ever, will be used to enhance our product capabilities. We will focus heavily on the AI component and other aspects that can help us better serve our existing customers," Ramadeen said.

HYDRA integrates AI, IoT and data analytics to develop solutions for agriculture, conservation, safety and security, and smart buildings and cities. (Source: The Awareness Company)

He said the company plans to grow its current customer base, allowing it to delve deeper into the market and expand its reach.

"A significant portion of the funding will be allocated to growing our marketing and sales efforts moving forward," he asserted.

Leveraging cloud and AI

Ramadeen said The Awareness Company's use cases and its product HYDRA are delivered via the cloud.

"Being a cloud-first solutions company is important as it speeds up deployment, improves accessibility, and is critical to leveraging existing technologies to build something faster," the CEO continued.

However, he said it's crucial to be mindful of data integrity and security, and the startup places a strong emphasis on this. It uses Microsoft Azure cloud, making its product secure.

Ramadeen said the company also uses AI to enhance various aspects of HYDRA.

These aspects encompass three key functions, which are creating and generating data, extracting insights and reports from the data, and sharing, collaborating, and working with the outputs within a business or an organization.

"AI is at is at the heart of everything we do within our product. The basis of the technology is that it can one day infer meaning from data automatically," the CEO continued.

"We will also use AI to better understand how our customers and users interact with the product and how it can help them automate many daily tasks. This will allow us to answer deep questions that our customers and users would want to have addressed going forward," Ramadeen said.