5 African startups have been selected to pitch at the Migration Challenge Start-up Competition, set for January 2020 in Ecuador.
The 5 African startups are part of the 10 most promising human resources, fintech, civictech and edtech start-ups with solution-oriented products to improve migration systems that respond to labour market needs.
The finalists are Mauritius-based Talenteum, South Africa’s Digemy, Kenya’s M-Shule, South Africa’s Maxicash, Rwanda’s BAG Innovation, Mynkana, Inmi, Valiu Visadb.io and Mumuki. A total of 73 applications from Latin American and African start-ups were received.
IOE Secretary General, Roberto Suárez Santos, said: “The Migration Challenge Competition is the first initiative of its kind. Rewarding innovative solutions to the information divide between employers and migrants through skills and technology is the first step towards promoting well-managed migration as a positive force for change.”
Through technology, the selected start-ups assist with better matching employment sectors facing skills shortages with trained regular migrants – expats, temporary workers, seasonal workers, intra-company transferees. Their products also offer ways for governments to share information and best practices to improve their policies, and provide migrant workers with access to financial, educational and labour mobility services.
The ten finalists will pitch for the prize at the first-ever “Tech Garden” of the Twelfth Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit in Quito, Ecuador on 20-24 January 2020.
The winner will be announced on 23 January 2020 during the closing plenary session.
The winning start-up will take part in the Global Seedstars Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland to be held April 2020, and will benefit from 3-months acceleration scholarship for the Investment Readiness Program (IRP). The runners-up will be awarded with 2 months acceleration scholarship for IRP.
Out of the 10 finalists, 5 ventures will get the full Seedstars Summit experience in Switzerland in April 2020, where they will participate in the 3-day bootcamp with mentors and investors. One global winner will be selected and announced during the summit receiving the official Migration Entrepreneurship Prize.
