Following a call for entries from eligible companies and a keenly competitive pitching process, seven innovative tech companies have qualified for much needed seed funding in the Covid-19 Innovative Challenge (CIC).
Facilitated by Ventures Platform (VP) in partnership with Venture Garden Group (VGG) and several other key players in the Nigerian tech ecosystem, the challenge received more than 500 entries between 17 and 23 March 2020 from innovative startups with solutions tailored to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
The solutions were reviewed through a three-phase selection process that culminated in a Virtual Demo Day on Thursday, 2 April 2020 where the seven finalists demonstrated their solutions before top officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), VP, VGG, Medical experts and key members of the Nigerian tech ecosystem.
Commenting on the Covid-19 Innovative Challenge, Chief Executive Officer, Venture Garden Group, Bunmi Akinyemiju said: “As a leading player in the Nigerian tech ecosystem, we are happy to collaborate with like-minded organisations to create and deploy tech solutions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides financial support, VGG will also be providing mentorship and technical assistance to these startups as we work to strengthen health workers and government officials in the frontline of the crisis.”
The qualifying startups are:
Wellvis Covid Triage – A simple online & USSD-based self-administered risk-assessment tool for measuring the level of exposure to Covid-19 with a symptom logger for remote monitoring by a clinician.
loEpid by Prunedge – a GPS and Bluetooth-based solution that improves efficiency of contact tracing by the NCDC as well as case reporting and management.
Infodemics by Ingenia Nigeria Limited- a risk communication platform that effectively connects health professionals and members of the public requiring medical help.
Driage by Caselink- a risk assessment tool for Covid-19 that matches individuals with the highest risk to the most appropriate clinical resource.
MyServiceAgent – an artificial intelligence -powered interactive voice response (IVR) system which can communicate with thousands of callers simultaneously.
Covid19 Nigeria – a platform that provides easy access to information as well as a broader and simpler disease tracing system.
Cmapit Analytics – a platform that helps researchers to better study data variables and make more accurate predictions through Geographic Information System (GIS) and data visualisation solution that provides geospatial data and analyses statistics regarding COVID-19.
