Lagos / The Hague, 30 May 2026 – HiiL, The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law, and Accelerate Africa showcased five justice-focused startups that were part of the 13 startup batch at the AA4 Demo Day & Conference, held on 30 May 2026 in Lagos, Nigeria and online.
The event marked the close of this year’s Accelerate Africa programme and brought together founders, investors, ecosystem partners, and innovation actors to see what the cohort had built and explore opportunities for growth, investment, and collaboration. Within the wider Accelerate Africa programme, HiiL and Accelerate Africa introduced a dedicated Justice Edition, supporting startups that are tackling some of the everyday barriers faced by small and growing businesses.
These include navigating registration and compliance requirements, managing contracts, preventing and resolving disputes, and improving access to credit. The five Justice Edition startups presented at Demo Day were:
- Gosar – developing API-driven infrastructure that brings company registration, licensing, compliance management, and cross-border payments into one operational backbone for growing businesses.
- Ploutos Page – helping SMEs organise and present legal and financial data to strengthen compliance, financial structuring, and investment readiness.
- PebbleScore – using AI-enabled analytics to improve credit assessment in data-scarce environments and expand responsible lending to underserved SMEs.
- MavericksAI – building AI-powered legal automation tools for document review, contract analysis, legal research, and compliance workflows.
- Justicesure Technology – developing digital trust and risk-management tools that help SMEs identify legal risks, access compliant templates, and connect with legal support.
The Justice Edition was designed around a clear idea: for entrepreneurs, justice is not only about courts. It is also about being able to register a business, understand obligations, manage risk, access finance, and resolve problems before they become costly disputes. Through the collaboration, HiiL brought its expertise in people-centred justice and innovation, while Accelerate Africa led with its acceleration model, founder network, and platform for scaling high-potential African startups. The programme was also supported by the wider ecosystem of partners, including Future Africa and Itana.
“The partnership with HiiL was important for us – not just as a signal to the market about the importance of justice focused startups, but the reality that to achieve the type of societal transformation we seek, we need to bring technology to MSMEs, who represent 96% of the economy in Nigeria while contributing almost 50% to GDP. There is more work to be done and we look forward to the continued partnership,” said [V. Chinyere Inya, Managing Partner, Accelerate Africa].
For HiiL, the Demo Day was an opportunity to highlight the role justice innovation can play in strengthening the conditions for entrepreneurship. When businesses can operate with greater legal clarity and confidence, they are better positioned to grow, create jobs, and contribute to more inclusive economic development.
“Justice is often treated as separate from business growth, but for small businesses it is part of the operating environment,” said Deyana Abououbeid, Justice Accelerator Programme Manager at HiiL. “The startups presented through the Justice Edition show how innovation can make legal and regulatory systems easier to navigate, more accessible, and more responsive to the needs of entrepreneurs.” The AA4 Demo Day highlighted the strength of Africa’s founder-led innovation ecosystem and the growing opportunity to connect entrepreneurship, justice, and economic development through more practical ways.
