Kenyan startups emerged winners in four out of five categories at the 2014 edition of the mobile startups event PIVOT East, with winning companies receiving US$10,000 each.
HumanIPO reported on the event kickoff on Tuesday, with 25 startups pitching to a panel of judges in a bid to win one of five categories.
Kenya’s SokoText, which offers an SMS-based pre-ordering service to small fruit and vegetable sellers, emerged as winner in the Society category, while another Kenyan startup A SiM Mobile, which is a supply chain mobile solution integrated with popular accounting apps, won the Enterprise category.
Chamasoft of Kenya, which manages the administration of chamas, emerged victor in the Finance category, and Sendy, a Kenyan platform for on-demand errands, took the Utilities category.
Tanzania’s UbongoKids, an interactive edu-cartoon, was the only non-Kenyan company to win one of the categories, taking the Entertainment prize, though Ethiopian cloud-based accounting solution Online Hisab did win the founder’s prize.
First runners-up were Beyonic (Uganda), Online Hisab (Ethiopia), Maramoja (Kenya), TotoHealth (Kenya) and Safari Tales (Kenya).
“The winners of the competition will win funding amounting to US$10,000 per startup from m:lab East Africa,” the organisers said. “The funding will be split into two halves, the first of which is a US$5,000 grant. The other portion of US$5,000 will be an investment which may be topped up by other investors depending on the startups funding requirements and their ability to convince other investors.”
