Chase Bank has announced its commitment to support tech entrepreneurship in the region in an effort to spur the SME market to move with the new global market trends.
This announcement was made during the Bank’s gold sponsorship to this year’s Pivot East competition; the competition focuses on catalyzing the growth of mobile start-ups by tech young entrepreneur.
Chase Bank Head of Brand and Corporate Affairs Magdalene Mulandi disclosed that technological entrepreneurship is ripe in region with mobile innovations growing at an unprecedented rate. She noted that Chase Bank’s move to commit Kshs 3.87million ($44791.380) to support Pivot East 2014 competition is a first step to the Bank’s realization of its brand promise of investing in innovative projects that particularly augments the growth of entrepreneurial sector.
The Pivot East 2014 competition and conference, organized by m: lab East will be held this year on 24th – 25th June in Nairobi, Kenya. The competition will emphasize on; facilitating discovery and nurturing of the next wave of high potential mobile innovations into sustainable business, ensuring that mobile innovations are high in the agenda of regional governments, corporates and development agencies for amplified development impact and to raise the quality of mobile startup in the region.
“Sponsoring Pivot East 2014 and having the chance to see our youth, particularly those with entrepreneurial skills, showcase their mobile solutions and innovations and their potential in the emerging business is exciting. We at Chase Bank are dedicated to serving the SME sector in all avenues and we strive to meet this goal by engaging in initiatives such as this. We continue to gain stature and focus our business on the SME sector,” said Mulandi.
Pivot East is East Africa’s premier mobile startups pitching competition and conference held annually since 2011. PIVOT East contains a series of activities that culminates in the eMobilis, University of Nairobi and the World Wide Web Foundation. In the past years, PIVOT East has drawn applicants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and DRC. This year, the competition has expanded the scope of applicants to Ethiopia.
Finalists of the competition, usually 25 each year, receive training, coaching and mentorship in the weeks preceding the pitching conference.