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{"id":5945,"date":"2015-07-21T11:20:13","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T09:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disrupt-africa.com\/test-site\/?p=5945"},"modified":"2015-07-21T11:05:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T09:05:03","slug":"safaricom-launches-3rd-edition-of-appwiz-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/2015\/07\/21\/safaricom-launches-3rd-edition-of-appwiz-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Safaricom launches 3rd edition of Appwiz Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leading Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom has launched the third edition of its three-month Appwiz Challenge, aiming to nurture and mentor ICT-driven startups.<\/b><\/p>\n

The initiative<\/a> is launched in partnership with the @iBizAfrica incubator at Strathmore University, and takes participants through a three-month training curriculum, offering mentorship and coaching from industry leaders and leading entrepreneurs, as well as training in entrepreneurship skills.<\/p>\n

Three innovative businesses and ideas will be selected from four categories, with the grand winner receiving a cash grant of KES1.5 million (US$14,700), second place KES1 million (US$9,800) and third place KES500,000 (US$4,900). Submissions are now open and close on August 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe growth of the mobile technology market presents a great platform for technology startups to not only create innovative solutions to everyday needs, but to transform these into sustainable businesses,\u201d said Joseph Ogutu, Safaricom director for strategy and innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this competition we want to transform lives through innovation, by supporting young ICT enterprises so that we can also help create opportunities for self-employment of Kenyans and retain Kenya\u2019s position as an African technology hub.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appwiz, first introduced in 2013, has so far incubated almost 30 tech startup solutions. Last year\u2019s winner was campus news portal Magazine Reel<\/a>, which now has close to 200,000 active users and 1.5 million page views monthly. M-Ledger, which was a runner-up in the first edition of the challenge, was in November last year acquired by Safaricom<\/a>. It now has over 150,000 active users.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe identified a gap in the market, where one of the main challenges startups face is the lack of funds to transition from prototype to market-ready product. So we developed a competition and training module that covers all the basics these innovators need to build successful start-ups. We\u2019re asking them to participate in groups of three, so that we can help them appreciate the value of teamwork in a business as we nurture their startups,\u201d said Ogutu.<\/p>\n

Safaricom is also looking to support Kenyan tech startups through its Spark Venture Fund, which was launched in November<\/a> and will see successful candidates receive between KES7 million (US$72,000) and KES22 million (US$225,000) investment in return for a minority stake in their startups.<\/p>\n

Disrupt Africa reported<\/a> last month 200 applications had been received for the US$1 million investment fund, with fund managers currently reviewing applications to create a shortlist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leading Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom has launched the third edition of its three-month Appwiz Challenge, aiming to nurture and mentor ICT-driven startups. The initiative is launched in partnership with the @iBizAfrica incubator at Strathmore University, and takes participants through a three-month training curriculum, offering mentorship and coaching from industry leaders and leading entrepreneurs, as well<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,39,32],"tags":[2501,658,17,4271,232,736,233,373,550],"class_list":{"0":"post-5945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-east-africa","8":"category-events","9":"category-news","10":"tag-ibizafrica","11":"tag-appwiz-challenge","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-joseph-ogutu","14":"tag-m-ledger","15":"tag-magazine-reel","16":"tag-safaricom","17":"tag-spark-venture-fund","18":"tag-strathmore-university"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.disruptafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}