TechPoint Africa the organizer of TechPoint Africa Build 2019 has announced its 12 finalists for Pitch Storm with startups from Nigeria taking the 8 spots on the list covering much of West Africa.
The online technology news platform made the announcement on The Nigerian startups on Monday 17 December, 2018. The 12 startups will be pitching for the equity-free prize of $10,000 at the Pitch Storm stage in 2019.
A statement from TechPoint Africa stated that the 12 startups were carefully selected from a pool of entries. The successful startups were judged based on visible traction, well identified customer base and solid revenue.
“As part of their preparations towards Pitch Storm at TechPoint Build 2019, the startups below will be bracing up for a bootcamp,” the organizer noted, “They will be receiving intensive coaching from the Pitch Storm facilitators, refining their pitches, business models, and honing their presentation skills.”
The eight Nigerian startups include:
Power stove (Nigeria): a social enterprise that innovates smart energy products and services that improve lives on a global scale. They’ve developed a product line of smart clean cooking technologies that is smokeless, said to cook food 5x faster — while reducing fuel use by 70% — and eliminating toxic emissions.
Wellnewme (Nigeria): is working to prevent the risk factors that are responsible for majorly cardiovascular diseases and stroke (which presumably are the leading causes of deaths) amongst adults in Nigeria. They are able to assess the health risks of individuals using an algorithm approach that spans physical, psycho-social and environmental domains and provide advice on all the key drivers of well-being, health and productivity.
Estate Intel Limited (Nigeria): is trying to build the Bloomberg Terminal for African real estate, because of the perceived lack of centralised and actionable data on the most important commercial real estate market indicators for effective decision making.
Foodlocker(Nigeria), a foodstuff and grocery (eCommerce/retail) startup based in Ibadan, with an interesting business model that juxtaposes both traditional and contemporary commerce.
Natterbase (Nigeria): is a talent accelerator platform that enables companies to hire and manage developers from anywhere in the world to meet their software needs.
HelpMum (Nigeria) is a maternal and child healthcare organisation that combats women and child health challenges in Africa. It sells inexpensive, sterilised birth kits containing 11 essential supplies required at childbirth to ensure a clean, safe and hygienic delivery.
HubbonNG (Nigeria): is simply building an Uber for Logistics. Its solution to logistics is 3-fold; an on-demand delivery booking platform, a business directory and a Logistics Management System.
SPUNVERTEK ENTERPRISE (Nigeria): A renewable energy technology developer that has supposedly innovated the only sustainable solar water pump inverter that can power any type of conventional submersible and surface water pump for irrigation farming, public and community water supply and Livestock.
There are startups from different countries in West Africa. They include:
Oniriq (Senegal) prides itself in combining solar with digital technologies. A typical Oniriq device (Solarbox) offers solar energy to off-grid populations, high-speed internet, IPTV, 24-inch TV set and three sets of lamps for a monthly subscription fee.
Agro fish farm (Sierra Leone) is addressing the issue of malnutrition by providing digitally bred table-sized fishes and fingerlings as commercially viable alternatives to regular fishes in the country.
Keiwa (Côte d’Ivoire) offers a unique proposition of providing a simple and accessible management tool while promoting access to financial products.
Codetrain (Ghana) trains young individuals on how to code and then matches them to reputable tech companies across the continent.
