The PIVOT East, a startups competition geared towards nurturing the growing ICT talent in East Africa has officially opened for 2015. The objective of this year’s competition is “to facilitate discovery of the next wave of high potential mobile startups in the region”. Entries can be made between March 30th 2015 until midnight EAT on April 31st 2015.
PIVOT East is organised by m:lab East Africa – a consortium comprising iHub, eMobilis, University of Nairobi and the World Wide Web Foundation. Startups can join the competition through the PIVOT East Startups Community Network website which also has information on eligibility criteria.
The competition has five categories which are; Mobile Finance, Mobile Enterprise, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Utilities, Mobile Society and Governance. Each category will feature five finalists who will pitch to an audience of Investors, Development Partners, Government Representatives and other key mobile industry players from East Africa. The 25 finalists will receive training and coaching on how to pitch to investors. PIVOT East is the primary route for startups to secure support through the m:lab’s residential and virtual incubation programs.
Pivot East has been in existence since 2011 About 75 mobile startups from across East Africa have participated as finalists of past PIVOT East editions. 20% of these startups have cumulatively raised over $5million in funding
after their participation in the competition. The competition seeks to catalyse the growth of mobile startups as well as consolidate the gains of East Africa’s Mobile developer and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
