Kenyan startup Twiga Fruits wins global Challenge Cup

Kenyan startup Twiga Fruits has been named winner of US-based accelerator 1776’s Challenge Cup global startups competition, winning US$150,000 in funding.

The Challenge Cup competition sees startups from around the world go head-to-head in four categories, namely education, energy, health, and transport and cities.  Over the past year, regional events took place in 16 cities across 11 countries worldwide, with four startups – one per category – from each region proceeding to the semi-finals.

Disrupt Africa reported last week the semi-finals were held in Washington DC at 1776’s Challenge Festival, with two startups selected in each category to battle it out at the global finals held on Saturday.

Kenya’s Twiga Fruits, competing in the transport and cities category, was named the overall global winner of the Challenge Cup competition; receiving US$150,000 in investment from 1776.

“Over the past six months, we’ve traveled the globe to find the world’s most promising startups working to develop innovative solutions to fundamental challenges in education, energy & sustainability, health, and cities & transportation,” said Donna Harris, co-founder of 1776.

“After going against stiff competition throughout the Challenge Cup, Twiga Fruits emerged tonight as this year’s most promising, problem-solving startup, and we look forward to helping them innovate and improve the transportation and cities industry for years to come.”

Startups Cognotion, Radiator Labs, and Reliefwatch were named as the winners in the education, energy and health categories, respectively, each winning US$100,000.

Disrupt Africa previously reported Nairobi was the only African leg of this year’s Challenge Cup competition.

However, in March, 1776 announced a partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), which next year will see the competition rolled out to 157 countries worldwide, including 30 in Africa.

Under the agreement with GEN, GEN national hosts and partners in 157 countries will have the opportunity to host local ChallengeX competitions, with the winning startups to participate in regional Challenge Cup competitions for a chance to win a place in the global semi-finals.