It’s that time again when we get to see the next big start-ups in East Africa. Pivot East 2014 is only two days and some hours away. It’s been quite some journey from the call for applications, submissions, vetting and finally picking of the last 25 start-ups from four countries; Kenya, Uganda ,Tanzania and Ethiopia. The 25 are divided into 5 categories and only one will be picked as winner from each category by the panel of investor judges, totaling to USD 50,000 to be awarded at the event which will be held on the 24th and 25th of July.
How this will be split
Funding will be split into halves where $5000 will be a grant while the other $5000 goes to become an investment that may be topped up by other investors depending on what funding requirements the start-ups request at the event and their ability to convince the investors who will be present at the event. A honorary award will be given to the overall winner selected by the founding partners of m:lab East Africa Consortium. Winners will also be incubated at the m:lab East Africa.
m:lab east Africa has since year 2011 organized Pivot East annually for start-ups with mobile technology based businesses and has so far funded 15 start-ups in the previous editions over the years. This is a total of USD 120,000 in direct funding while previous finalists whose number is 75 have gone on to raise over USD 5 million in investments directly or indirectly.
This year’s competition winners will go through a Venture Capital course through a partnership between m:lab and Savannah Fund where Savannah Fund will sponsor them to attend an executive education program on VC investment. The VC course which will be held on 29th and 30th of July at the iHub Nairobi will be hosted by Savannah Fund in conjunction with University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and Knife Capital.
