Ethiopia is the latest entrant into the region’s competition after its tech hub iceaddis agreed to work with and be part of PIVOT East, a regional startup competition and conference for mobile entrepreneurs. In 2013, mobile entrepreneurs from Somalia and South Sudan were welcome to apply to the competition.
Iceaddis joins Tanzania’s Kinu and Buni Rwanda’s kLab ,Uganda’s Outbox and Hive Colab and Kenya’s iBiz Africa and C4DLab to become the competition’s fertile fishing grounds for the region’s best entrepreneurs and developers. Just like the other hubs, Iceaddis see the competition, not only as a chance to expose their own startups to the region, but also an opportunity to market them to to the international market and also learn from others. Iceaddis’ startups will also have a chance to mix with their counterparts and learn from them apart from widening their networks and user-base.
According to Markos Lemma from iceaddis hub Ethiopia in a statement to PIVOT East “Iceaddis, Ethiopian technology innovation hub and a home for Ethiopian entrepreneurs and techies is glad to participate in PIVOT East 2014. This is a unique opportunity for our community and beyond to participate for the first time from Ethiopia. We hope that PIVOT East 2014 will help publicize Ethiopian developers to the East African community.”
Set to take place this June 24 in Nairobi, Kenya, PIVOT East is East Africa’s premier mobile startups pitching competition and conference organized by m:lab East Africa annually since 2011. PIVOT East aims at catalyzing growth of mobile start-ups, with an aim to amplify and consolidate the gains of East Africa’s Mobile developer and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The key objective for this year’s event is “to facilitate discovery of the next wave of high potential mobile startups in the region”.
The new partnership with the region’s tech hubs will see the best entrepreneurs from the region picked up to participate, win prizes and get support to further build their businesses. Last year, OutBox hub was instrumental in the success of the 2013 edition of the finalists pitching conference which was held in Kampala – Uganda.
Richard Zulu, Program manager Outbox Hub Uganda, who was at the centre of the 2013 PIVOT East said, “Pivot East provides the best consistent and inclusive platform for startup engagement within the East African region. The opportunities it presents can be experienced by each and every participant, enabling everyone to benefit in one way or another.”
Set to be held in Nairobi, the regions tech hubs will work with the conference to sensitize as many mobile entrepreneurs to apply, train them to successfully pitch and get a chance to be among PIVOT East 2014. The top 25 startups will pitch to a rich audience of investors and industry players.
Interested mobile entreprenuers can submit their applaications here before the 11 April 2014 deadline. For more details on the eligibility criteria and how to enter the competition click here.
