PIVOT East, an innovative competition geared towards nurturing the growing ICT talent in East Africa has unveiled semi-finalists for this year’s competition. The competition opened a call for applications in February 2014 with startups from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia applying through an online portal.
To reach the best startups in the region, PIVOT East partnered with tech hubs across the region to take part in the 2014 edition of the competition. The hubs include; Outbox(Uganda), HiveColab(Uganda), Kinu(Tanzania), kLab(Rwanda), iceaddis(Ethiopia), iBiz Africa(Kenya) and C4DLab9Kenya).
The selection criteria was made public prior to the submission deadline. The criteria was applied by a panel of 15 thought leaders on startups drawn from across the region to review the submissions. This culminated into top 10 startups in five categories being determined. The semi-finalists totalling 50 will be competing to be in the list of 25 exceptional mobile startups set to fight it out from market recognition and investor interest during the final conference on 24th – 25th June. The panel for selection of the final top 25 consists of over 15 active investors among them venture capital firms, angelinvestors and impact investors.
The semi-finalists of PIVOT East 2014 listed by category in alphabetical order are as follows:
Finance Category
Beyonic(Uganda): Aim to eliminate cash by creating the best solutions that enable business to make payments using mobile money.
Bill-On(Kenya): Bill-On is a mobile application that enables users to pay multiple monthly bills all at the touch of a button.
ChamaSoft(Kenya): Is an investment group management platform which manages administration of chamas, allowing them to concentrate on investment rather than administration.
Chura(Kenya): Chura connects mobile users to all networks and their services from a single SIM card.
Ensibuuko(Uganda): Leveraging mobile and web technologies to improve access to finance for small holder rural farmers.
FarmDrive(Kenya): FarmDrive connects small holder farmers to people with disposable income that want to invest in agribusiness ventures.
Kadi(Kenya): Kadi is a mobile application that enables school going students to carry their pocket money and make purchases with the use of NFC technology.
Mchama(Kenya): Mchama is a mobile app that helps self-help groups(chamas) that do table banking capture and keep their records timely and accurately.
Tevat ltd(Kenya): Tevat aims to give entrepreneurs a platform to leverage family, friends, chamas and existing base of fans/supporters to collectively raise capital in exchange for equity.
Valuraha(Kenya): The Valuraha Trader is a platform that simulates the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the conventional investment instruments in Kenya.
Enterprise Category
A Sim Mobile(Kenya) A Sim Mobile is a supply chain mobile solution intergrated seamlessly with most popular accounting, ERP apps in the world.
Buymore(Kenya): Buymore offers students discounts that enhance user retail experience and push foot fall to merchants.
KejaHunt (Kenya): KejaHunt is an online property listing platform that helps you find a household and a roommate, and gives visibility to local businesses.
