m:lab East Africa, a Nairobi based mobile innovation incubation space has launched its third Pivot East competitions to be held in Kampala for the first time and open for mobile startups from South Sudan and war-torn Somalia.
According to m:lab’s Sheila Birgen, “The competition began in February 2013 with a workshop on Intellectual Property, other workshops activities will be in march as we gear up to the event that will culminate in a pitching conference for 25 regional finalists in Kampala on June 25 and 26.”
Pivot East 2013 has categories include Financial Services, Business and Resource Management, Entertainment , Mobile Society and Utilities.
Mobile startup companies or individuals from Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Somalia are eligible to apply.
m:lab East Africa in 2011 and 2012 hosted Pivot 25 and Pivot East and top five startups emerged with $5,000 each in 2011 and $10,000 for each category winner in 2012. The 2011 and 2012 pitching competitions and conferences were both held in Nairobi, Kenya but according to John Kieti, m:lab East Africa’s head this years competition will be held in Kampala Uganda to give them an East African feel reason the centre was established.
According to m:lab, the objectives of Pivot East 2013 include consolidating the recent gains of the regional mobile ecosystem in a move to direct the thinking from mobile applications to mobile entrepreneurship. Facilitatation of the next wave of high potential mobile startups, ask regional governments, development agencies and corporates to put mobile innovations high in their agenda and to raise the quality of mobile startups in the region and their investability.
