SafeMotos, Duma Works, Shield Finance, Arifu and Makarao were category winners at yesterday’s PIVOT East mobile startups pitching competition in Nairobi, Kenya.
The enterprise category saw DumaWorks (Kenya), an SMS-based job matching platform that connects SME’s to verified talents.
Shield Finance (Kenya), a startup that employs proprietary technology to give SME employees salary advance over mobile money platforms, won the finance category.
Arifu (Kenya) won the Society and Governance category and it’s an education marketplace through which information can be sourced from organizations.
MakaraoTV (Kenya), a hilarious 2D animation series about police and social issues, won the entertainment category.
The only entrant from Rwanda, SafeMotos, a safe ‘Uber’ for moto taxis in Kigali, won the Utilities category. SafeMotos also got the founder’s cup for the team’s innovativeness
The competition began with 25 mobile startups from the region and the organizers believe this avenue will give the winners market awareness and investor interest.
The 25 startups pitched to a investors, media and other stakeholders in Nairobi yesterday, with the judges declaring winners in five categories. All winners receive free one-year hosting from Kenyan cloud startup Angani, unlike in previous years when there have been cash prizes.
Startups interested in participating in PIVOT East 2016 are encouraged to start building profiles of their startups on startups.pivoteast.com for initial business model refinement support and guidance. Semi Finalists of PIVOT East 2015 who did not make it to the finals are eligible to apply for the 2016 competition.