Today marks the last day of the Nairobi Innovation Week.
The NIW.Startups program which began a few months ago and has been the heart of this year’s event will culminate today with 3 sessions scheduled for the entire day.
The Nairobi Innovation Week now in its 4th year has grown tremendously to cover 100 startup pitches and the 15 most promising startups in Kenya, Startups from all over Eastern Africa supported by the African Development Bank, over 3,000 delegates, and over 50 partners from Private Sector, Development Agencies, Government, Academia, Government, civil society and the media.
Startups from different tracks have been pitching throughout the week supported by hubs, enablers and accelerators all over the country and with access to local regional and international investors from Kenya, Finland, Germany and Israel among other countries. Bootcamps have been going on since February hosted by different players in the ecosystem to ensure that the Startups are investor ready.
Nairobi Innovation Week is keen to grow the ecosystem and ensure accessibility to mentorship and funding while supporting the startups to scale up into regional and global enterprises. The Nairobi Innovation Week acknowledges that this cannot happen without the support of government, private sector, development agencies and local and international partners.
As the world moves towards investing more in Africa and outsourcing work to Africa, Kenya is keen to position itself as a favorable market for foreign direct investment by having a dynamic ecosystem, a competitive skill set and being an innovation leader.
Nairobi Innovation Week 2018 was officially opened by @AMB_A_Mohammed the CS, for Ministry of Education. This year's innovation week will run up to the 9th of March#NIW2018 pic.twitter.com/mk14TCtH69
— Nairobi Innovation Week (@NairobiIW) March 7, 2018
#NIW2018 also recognizes that there is need for innovation to achieve the sustainable development goals in food security, education, healthcare and manufacturing. There is need for advancements in all the sectors to grow the economy and address issues such as unemployment and climate change.
#NIW2018 Winners So Far:
Currently winners of the already concluded thematic tracks are as below:
• Manufacturing and processing Category Winner: Mhogo Foods
• CleanTech Winner- Cist Africa
• Agriculture Track: Sweet and dried
• Health; Connect med; Wins kshs one million from Villgro.
• Education and Employment: Yusudi
The 15 Most promising startups in Kenya identified as per the growth, launch and idea plus stages are as below:
Growth Stage:
• Connect Med- Health Track
• Capture Solutions Limited-Agriculture Track
• Med bit-Health
• Alternative Circle-Fintech
• Icoseed-Agriculture
Villgro Kenya Congratulates @ConnectMedKE on their win. #NIW2018 #1Milli4Health @NIWStartups @NairobiIW pic.twitter.com/ixKEY0Bmf5
— Villgro Kenya (@VillgroKenya) March 6, 2018
Launch Stage:
Winner gets Kshs 500,000 from the University of Nairobi
• GIG: Entertainment
• Baobab: Circle
• Yusudi Limited: Education
• Sauti Africa: Agriculture
• Dial a pad: Health
Idea + Stage:
Winner gets Kshs 500,000 from the University of Nairobi
• Majik Water: Health
• Gwiji Link: Education
• Casemo Foods: Manufacturing
• OURS Africa: Health
• Lipa Solutions: Fintech
The intention of the awards is to help the startups prepare and fill in gaps so as to access more funding from investors.
African Development Bank winners:
The Africa Development Bank will be awarding the five winners below Kshs 100,000 in a bid to accelerate Africa’s economic transformation through these five areas (The High 5’S).
The High five’s include Light up Africa, Integrate Africa, Industrialize Africa, Feed Africa and Improve the life of the people in Africa. In addition, the 50 best winners in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi will be published in the African development Bank- Nairobi Innovation Week Journal
Each wins Kshs 100,000 from the African development Bank
• Solargent Technologies: Light up Africa
• Flare: Integrate Africa
• Eco-act :Industrialize Africa
• Sweet and dried: Feed Africa
• Bento Energy: Improve quality of Life
Winners get to showcase their innovations in the exhibition area and meet local and international investors today
The fourth and final keynote speech will be delivered by the chief guest; Hon. Joe Mucheru – CS – MoICT.
During the event that started on Monday 5th March 2018, over 80 pitches have taken place. The pitches were divided on various tracts each with different startups from ideation stage to mature startups. The pitches aimed at exposing the founders to various investors in the ecosystem with some such as ConnectMed winning up to Ksh. 1,000,000 in the health tract category. The winning startups will be feted at the closing ceremony. The program is a new spin off of Nairobi Innovation Week and can be deemed as a success in regard to set objectives.
The venue for the 3 sessions of the day will be at the Manu Chandaria Auditorium on the University of Nairobi Towers. The first session will have 2 keynote speeches, the first one by Jussi Hinkkanen, the founder of Fuzu. The second keynote speech of the day will be delivered by Alloys Neshack, founder of Sendy. The theme for this session is Startup Founder Journeys, Local and International Founder Perspectives, startup support systems from founder perspective. Other stakeholders in the ecosystem will be holding a fireside chat after the keynote speeches.
The next session slated for 11am is themed Interrogating pitches by 5 growth stage startups and examining the role of startup systems from local and global investor perspectives. Alternative Circle, Capture Solutions, iCoseed, MedBit and ConnectMed will be making their final pitches during this session. Some of the investors expected during this session include Rache Crawford from Village Capital and Ravinder Sikand from Energy Access Ventures.
The 3rd and final session of the day is set to begin at 1.45pm. The keynote speeches will be delivered by Gabriel Negatu and CS Mucheru.
They will also be serving as the interrogating judges and if impressed, they may invest as well. The pitches in this session are ideation stage startups.
The sessions begin in the morning and are set to end by 4pm.
