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Kwese is holding semi-finals of the #GoGettaz entrepreneurship competition in Nairobi, Kenya where 12 ventures will pitch to a panel of judges and a live audience for a chance to take home $100,000 investments and a 2-week mentorship with Econet Global founder, Strive Masiyiwa.
Set to hold on Thursday, 25 January, the 12 semi-finalist entrepreneurs include both for-profit and not-for-profit businesses in six African countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Only two top ventures will receive the $200,000 in seed funding.
Kwesé Inc kicked off the inaugural #GoGettaz competition for entrepreneurs on 18 August 2017, a challenge to inspire entrepreneurship launched on win.kwese.com and the Facebook page of Mr Masiyiwa which has over 3mn followers, many of them aspiring African entrepreneurs.
The top 12 finalists initially won a cumulative total of points in four Kwese.com online quizzes. The top scorers were then asked to submit written pitches. Winners of that phase then progressed to a social media voting phase where the 12 semi-finalists made their own online pitches and then used social media to lobby votes for their ventures from the general public globally. This stage of the contest closed on the 30 November 2017 with an impressive 50million combined votes tallied.
The 12 semi-finalists will be flown to Nairobi to pitch LIVE and have their ventures assessed on their business/non-profits’ sustainability, originality, social benefit, and scalability. A combination of votes garnered from the social media shares and final scores from the upcoming pitch session will be used to select the six top finalists.
The two winners will not only win investment in their businesses, but as inaugural Kwesé Entrepreneur Fellows, will also receive direct mentorship with Mr Masiyiwa in Kwesé TV offices in South Africa.
