Postponed: PIVOT East Africa Startups Competition 2017 for East African Startups

PIVOT East Africa will be postponing this year’s PIVOT East startup competition and conference, which was scheduled to take place on 15th November 2016 in Nairobi.

The training, coaching and mentorship program that we provide to the finalists sets Pivot East apart from many other competitions in the market. This year, however, we have been going through a lot of changes and implementations towards our next phase and we have less time than we need to provide our finalists for the competition the experience and support they deserve.

We don’t want to compromise the quality of organization of what we think has become an institution in the ecosystem. We will continue working with the finalists to refine key elements of their business models and prepare the finalists for the conference next year. We will also give the finalists an opportunity to gain more traction and be able to compete effectively and position their startups to the rich pool of investors in the finalists competitions next year.

Application Deadline: 8th September, 2016

Pitch Date: Now Postponed. New date to be communicated in 2017.

Eligible Countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Burundi, Somalia or DR Congo

To be taken at (country):  Nairobi, Kenya

About the Award: PIVOT EAST is East Africa’s premier mobile startups pitching competition and conference held annually since 2011. It is an m:lab East Africa initiative to amplify and consolidate the gains of East Africa’s Mobile developer and entrepreneurship ecosystem. In the six month annual program, targeted educational workshops for mobile entrepreneurs and business advisory sessions culminate in the finalist top 25 mobile startup pitching to investors and partners at the conference.

Objectives of PIVOT EAST are :-

• To consolidate recent gains of the regional mobile ecosystem and help direct the thinking from mobile applications to mobile entrepreneurship.
• To facilitate discovery of the next wave of high potential mobile startups
• To sustain the push towards mobile innovations being high in the agenda of regional governments, corporates and development agencies
• To raise the quality of mobile startups in the region and to improve their investability

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility: Participating startups must be headquartered in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Burundi, Somalia or DR Congo

Number of Awardees: 

Value of Programme: The competition has five categories::

• Finance
• Enterprise
• Entertainment
• Utilities
• Society and Governance

Each category will feature five finalists who will then pitch to an audience of Investors and other key stakeholders from East Africa.

The 25 finalists will also receive training and coaching on how to pitch to investors.

Duration of Programme: 6 months

How to Apply: 

Visit Programme Webpage for details

Award Provider: PIVOT East Africa