Hackathons · 2016 – 2022

Ten years of building XR, together

From five teams on a single floor in Lagos to 42 countries across the continent — the ARVR Africa Hackathon is the largest XR building programme in Africa.

The model

Training. Hackathon. Bootcamp.

The ARVR Africa model consists of three programmes that take a participant from first contact with XR tools to a pitched, investable product.

ARVR Africa Training

Weeks of structured courses, expert sessions, and surgery hours — self-paced and instructor-led, in English and French — so participants arrive at the hackathon ready to build.

ARVR Africa Hackathon

An intensive build sprint — in-person, online, or hybrid — where teams turn ideas into working XR prototypes, judged by industry experts.

ARVR Africa Bootcamp

Winning teams enter a months-long programme of leadership, business, legal, and pitch training, culminating in a Demo Day before investors and the XR ecosystem.

Past editions

Four editions, one trajectory

2016

Nigeria’s First VR Hackathon

19 NOV 2016 · CO-CREATION HUB, YABA, LAGOS

5 TEAMS · 3 VERTICALS · SAMSUNG GEAR VR

The first VR hackathon in Nigeria — and quite possibly Africa. Five teams, formed two months ahead to allow preparation, built for the Samsung Gear VR across education, healthcare, and tourism. Judged by Bosun Tijani (CEO, CcHUB), Rasheed Olaoluwa (former CEO/MD, Bank of Industry), and Bankole Alao (Innovation Lead, Ericsson), with Bunmi Otegbade as MC. Partners included CcHUB, Facebook, Virtual World Society, Institute for the Future, Samsung HQ, and Asktoks.com.

★ Team LeVRn — motion-aided coding education in VR

Participants at Nigeria’s first VR hackathon, 2016

PHOTO: MOHINI UFELI

2018

First Continental Hackathon

THEME: CREATING OUR FUTURE

7 COUNTRIES · 35+ TEAMS · 48 HOURS · $15,000+ PRIZES

The hackathon went continental: Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Mozambique, Kenya, South Africa, and Tunisia. Over 35 teams competed in a 48-hour build for a prize pool of over $15,000.

★ Team HaHa (Egypt) — overall winner, an all-female team

A participant tries a VR headset at the 2018 ARVR Africa Hackathon

2020

First Online Hackathon

THEME: AFRICA IN SIGHT — OUR FUTURE IN XR

28 COUNTRIES · 1,000+ PARTICIPANTS · SPONSOR: FACEBOOK

Held August to December 2020, online and continent-wide, with offline grand finales in 11 countries. Over 1,000 participants from 28 African countries — 23% female — formed 64 teams and submitted 68 solutions across 131 sessions, supported by 14 mentors, 15 judges, and 8 Microsoft volunteers. Prize pool: over $20,000. 27 teams won, plus one Best Student Team.

★ Team Unlimited (Nigeria) — Best Team overall

Team Hewa receive their winner’s cheque at the 2020 ARVR Africa Hackathon grand finale in Kenya

2022

42 Countries, One Community

42 COUNTRIES — 16 IN-PERSON, 26 VIRTUAL

9-MONTH PROGRAMME · SPONSOR: META

Sponsored by Meta, the 2022 ARVR Africa Hackathon ran for nine months across the full ARVR Africa model: Training, Hackathon, and Bootcamp. ARVR Africa Training reached 2,767 Discord members, with 612 enrolled in instructor-led courses, 756 live classes, 840 surgery hours, and a 38-session XR Expert Series. The hybrid hackathon opened with a keynote by Bob Morgan, VP Reality Labs Developer Partnerships at Meta.

★ Team Seede XR (Tanzania) — Best Team overall

Teams at work during the 2022 ARVR Africa Hackathon

Winners gallery

The teams that built it

2016 — The five founding teams

Team LeVRn

WINNER

An app teaching coding, combining Gear VR with Leap Motion for motion-aided learning in a virtual environment. Won a $1,000 competition prize (CcHUB), $5,000 seed investment, and a $1,000 Future Prize (Institute for the Future).

Team GoThere

An app to experience locations in Nigeria before visiting.

Team Life Race

A gamified learning experience explaining human conception.

Team Farm VR

An app teaching extension workers about farm pests in local languages.

Team 3D6

A retail VR app for virtual shopping.

2018 — Creating Our Future

Team HaHa · EGYPT

OVERALL WINNER

The all-female team from Egypt took the overall prize at the first continental edition.

Team Code Gang · SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa winner — an AR solution for mobile phones helping travellers navigate airports.

2020 — First-place winners by country

Nigeria

Team Unlimited

AR educational content aligned to the government curriculum. Named Best Team overall.

Kenya

Team Hewa

AR visualising air pollution with health recommendations. Named Best Student Team.

Egypt

A41

Interactive VR Arabic-language solution teaching human anatomy.

Ghana

Team Relu

VR game educating players about Ghana’s history.

Rwanda

Mind Can Hack

AR game driving tourism by challenging users to find digital grails at tourist sites.

Senegal

Amanirenas

Interactive VR hide-and-seek game promoting cultural diversity, with in-app currency Petaws.

Cameroon

E-Warriors

Educational solution for learning through gaming in a virtual chemistry laboratory.

Mozambique

Tech Lab Hack

AR app helping pupils learn their numbers.

South Africa

Group 2

Edutainment — an educational solution for interactive multi-subject learning through problem-solving.

Tunisia

The Lymz

Therapeia — a VR mental healthcare experience for therapists and patients.

Africa Online

Farm YLD

Forecasting climate change impact on farmland yield.

2022 — ARVR Africa Hackathon winners

Team Seede XR · TANZANIA

BEST TEAM OVERALL

A virtual reality medical training simulation — named Best Team overall of the 2022 ARVR Africa Hackathon.

17 first-place teams

Seventeen first-place teams from sixteen countries advanced into the ARVR Africa Bootcamp, where every one of them pitched an MVP at Demo Day in Lagos.

The Bootcamp

From prototype to pitch

2021

FIRST ARVR AFRICA BOOTCAMP · MARCH – MAY 2021 · VIRTUAL

A 2.5-month virtual programme for ten winning teams from the 2020 hackathon across Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia. The curriculum covered leadership and entrepreneurship (Dr Yabome Gilpin-Jackson), high-performance teams (Toks Bakare, Harvard Fellow), startup business models, legal compliance, fundraising, and pitch storytelling (Jennifer Wolf-Rogers, XR Bootcamp). Judith Okonkwo mentored all teams.

At Demo Day on 28 May 2021, six teams pitched MVPs to XR experts and investors: Hewa, EDU AR, Langaa Buri, Edutainment, Farm YLD, and Therapeia. Teams went on to incubators and accelerators, launched startups, and began working as XR developers and freelancers.

2023

ARVR AFRICA BOOTCAMP · DEMO DAY 5 APR 2023 · LAGOS

A three-month virtual programme for the seventeen first-place winners of the 2022 ARVR Africa Hackathon from sixteen countries — weekly sessions with industry experts plus technical and financial support to build MVPs.

On 5 April 2023 at The Village Garden, Lagos, all seventeen teams pitched to industry leaders, investors, and the wider XR ecosystem.

The 2023 ARVR Africa Bootcamp Demo Day at The Village Garden, Lagos

Laval Virtual 2021

The first African delegation at a global XR event

From 7 to 9 July 2021, six African XR companies and one student team formed an African pavilion at Laval Virtual in France — the first-ever African delegation at a major global XR event, organised by Imisi 3D and Laval Virtual after an open call.

“The first of its time — and hopefully the first of many.”
— JUDITH OKONKWO

The delegation

Team Hewa (Kenya)
5d VR (Egypt)
Eden (South Africa)
Guzo Technologies (Ethiopia)
Augmented Future (Rwanda)
DCX Digital Cultural Experience (Tunisia)

The African delegation on stage at Laval Virtual 2021

JUL 2021 · THE AFRICAN DELEGATION ON STAGE AT LAVAL VIRTUAL · PHOTO: PRISMA LAVAL

Research

Africa XR Ecosystem Report

Published in October 2022, the report maps the companies, startups, freelancers, and academics working in XR across Africa — the evidence base for an ecosystem that builds.

Read the report →

2022

Published October 2022
africaxrreport.com