Ten startups from across Africa have been selected to take part in the inaugural Disrupt Africa Live Pitch Competition, which takes place in Nairobi next week.
The Live Pitch Competition, the first of its kind to be launched by Disrupt Africa, will be co-located with AHUB East, taking place at the East Africa Com event on Wednesday, May 16 at the Radisson Blu in Nairobi’s Upper Hill.
A total of 10 tech startups from four African countries have been selected to take part in the competition, which will see them pitch their innovative products and solutions to a judging panel formed of Stephen Gugu, manager of the Viktoria Business Angels Network (VBAN); Aaron Fu, managing director of MEST; Hannah Clifford, director of Nairobi Garage; and Gabriella Mulligan, co-founder of Disrupt Africa.
Six of the selected companies are from Kenya, namely IoT-based e-health startup Beacon, agricultural supply chain platform Taimba, dairy farm digitalisation startup LishaBora, bitcoin-based crowdfunding platform Drofund, and insurtech startups Kakbima and WazInsure.
Tanzania is represented by agri-tech startups Leo Leo and KilimoPoint, and Zambia by The Local Electricity Project, which sells an educational kit which gives young people everything they need to create new ways of generating electricity using local resources.
One Nigerian startup – digital publishing platform Publiseer – has also made the cut.
The winning startup will earn an expenses-paid trip to Cape Town to pitch their startup at AfricaCom, Africa’s premier tech conference, in November 2018; a one-on-one investor meeting with Gugu; a marketing package worth US$500 from Disrupt Africa; and six months free membership of the Nairobi Garage Club Space on Ngong Road.
“We were really impressed by the quality and diversity of applications for our first live pitching event, and look forward to welcoming the teams to Nairobi next week,” said Disrupt Africa co-founder and judging panellist Gabriella Mulligan.
“There are some great prizes up for grabs for the winning startup, but all participants stand to benefit from pitching their innovative solutions to an audience of potential partners and investors, and networking with industry stakeholders over the course of the event.”
