Five startups will win a combined total of over fifty thousand dollars in funding at the PIVOT East finalists conference. The five startups will be selected from 25 finalists annouced earlier this month by Appsafrica. The startups will pitch to investors and industry peers on 24th and 25th June in Nairobi, Kenya.
Conference for tech startups
Since 2011, m:lab East Africa has organized annual editions of PIVOT East, an annual pitching conference for startups with mobile technology based businesses. The m:lab has so far funded 15 startups through previous PIVOT East editions to the tune of US$120,000. At this year’s edition the funding will be at $50,000 each to five startups. The funding will be split into two halves, the first of which is a $5,000 grant. The other portion $5,000 will be an investment which may be topped up by other investors depending on the startups funding requirements and their ability to convince other investors.
Previous finalists have so far raised over $5m
75 startups have participated in the annual competition so far. These previous finalists have so far raised over $5m in investments directly or indirectly as a benefit of going through the PIVOT East competition. To increase odds of the startups accessing more capital for growth, the m:lab has entered a partnership with Savannah fund to take this year’s five competition winners through a venture capital (VC) course.
Executive education programme for winners
Savannah fund will sponsor five winning startups of PIVOT East to attend an executive education programme on VC investment. The course will be hosted by Savannah Fund in conjunction with the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business and Knife Capital at the iHub in Nairobi on 29th – 30th July. The VC course will help entrepreneurs learn how to identify and create winning opportunities, and how to position themselves competitively for venture investment. More details of the course are available on the University of Cape Town website here.
The 25 startups who will be pitching at the finalists conference were selected from a pool of 50 semi-finalists. The finalists cover a range of East African countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and 18 from Kenya. Startups from the larger East African region including Rwanda , Burundi and South Sudan were eligible for the competition.
The 5 winners will be announced on the 25th June here on Appsafrica.com, a proud media partner of Pivot East 2014. You can follow all the lastest news on Facebook and Twitter.
