TechMoran has opened nominations for a new initiative called StartupEast, a conference and awards program built to spot early-stage startups across East Africa before they become household names. The inaugural event is set for December 3, 2026, in Nairobi.
The idea is simple: get founders, investors, customers, and anyone plugged into the tech scene to nominate startups worth watching. Founders can even nominate themselves.
Who Can Enter?
The rules are fairly loose on purpose. To qualify, a startup needs to be based in or operating across East Africa, have raised less than $2 million, and be under eight years old. Where the founders are from doesn’t matter.
TechMoran says it’s especially interested in companies that already have something real to show, whether that’s a working prototype, an MVP, early customers, or some kind of traction.
Sectors span the usual suspects: AI, fintech, health tech, agritech, climate tech, enterprise software, commerce, logistics, mobility, and education.
Startups can be nominated through TechMoran’s website.
Sam Wakoba, co-founder of TechMoran, said the goal is to catch companies while they’re still early enough to surprise people.
His point is that plenty of founders across East Africa are building solid businesses and landing their first customers without the attention that usually comes with a big funding round. StartupEast wants to find those companies before the rest of the market does.
Wakoba also said the judging process will go beyond the pitch deck. Evaluators will be looking at the founder, the problem being solved, how strong the product actually is, early traction, market size, and whether the business can scale.
After nominations close, startups go through evaluation and shortlisting, then finalists move to public voting before winners are announced at the December event.
TechMoran is framing StartupEast as more than a one-night awards ceremony. Ahead of the December conference, the platform will run monthly events called #TechNights, where founders, investors, and industry people can network and talk deals.
Wakoba was blunt about what actually matters to a startup at this stage: it’s not really about the award itself. It’s about getting in front of the right investor, landing a first big customer, finding a strategic partner, or attracting good talent.
Those connections, he argued, tend to matter more than recognition on its own.
To that end, StartupEast says it will work to connect founders with venture capital and angel investors, corporate executives, potential customers, and strategic partners, and plans to keep tracking these companies as they grow past the early stage.
The Categories
The first StartupEast Awards will hand out titles including Startup of the Year, Most Promising Startup, and Founder of the Year, along with awards broken down by sector like AI, fintech, health tech, agritech, climate tech, and enterprise technology.
East Africa already has a track record of producing globally known tech companies, mostly in mobile payments, financial services, commerce, logistics, and agriculture.
Wakoba’s argument is that the next wave of standout companies won’t necessarily come from the same playbook. They might come from sectors or places nobody’s watching yet, and that’s exactly what StartupEast is trying to catch early.
Nominations are open now through TechMoran’s website, and anyone interested in attending the December 3 conference in Nairobi can register through StartupEast’s site.
