The Presidential Innovation Challenge Pitchfest was held at the Kenya Innovation Week 2023 which was held at the Edge Convention Centre, Nairobi, to determine the awardees of the Presidential Innovation Award (PIA), which is a module of the Talanta Hela programme under the umbrella of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports that intended to develop the entrepreneurial capacity of innovators across the country.
It recognises and awards the innovative work of top innovators in the country within the national priority areas of Food Security and Agriculture, Digital Transformation, Healthcare, Climate Action and Green Energy and Entertainment and Gaming.
Winners Per County
1. Bioafriq Energy Limited (By James Nyamai) MAKUENI COUNTY:This innovative technology addresses food security challenges by efficiently dehydrating farm products year-round, overcoming the limitations of conventional solar dryers that struggle during Kenya’s rainy and cold seasons. By significantly reducing post-harvest losses for farmers.
2. Signvrse (By Elly Savatia)KAJIADO COUNTY: Signvrse is an assistive technology startup utilising AI (Computer Vision) and automated 3D technology to interpret text and speech, creating lifelike sign language avatars with real-time precision.
3.Agritech Analytics (By Marryann Gichanga)KIAMBU COUNTY:AgriTech Analytics Ltd has created a crop & soil management tool that leverages AI-powered satellite imagery data & data from our IoT sensor to halt soil degradation, crop pests and diseases to increase yields for small holder farmers.
4.Piquant Spices (By Stephen Machua)MURANG’A COUNTY: Piquant spices is a Manufacturing company that is doing value addition of herbs and spices for local and export markets. These spices are grown by smallholder farmers in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya thus providing an alternative high value crop for ASALs.
5.Farmer Lifeline Technologies (By Alice Kayo)NAIROBI COUNTY:Farmer Lifeline is an early-stage Kenyan based company that empower smallholder farmers through AI to enable them detect crop pests and diseases in time and know the solutions to applys.
6.Ruphids Autotech Solutions (By Philip Nganda)KITUI COUNTY:Ruphids autotech provides a biometric attendance gadget that reduces truancy cases and other related problems such as the increasing pregnancy cases amongst school going children by sending sms to the parents on arrival and leaving time at the school premises.
7.Bevis Africa (By Victor Mburu)LAMU COUNTY:Bevis Africa Integrates nature-based solutions with tech-based solutions to ensure equitable and sustainable livelihoods. We are leveraging the power of web3 and Blockchain to enable farmers and pastoral communities to tap into climate financing especially the voluntary carbon market.
8.M-Taka (By Primafacie Mutua)KISUMU COUNTY: M-taka is a pioneering social impact recycling venture located in Kisumu, Kenya, on the shores of Lake Victoria. It was founded to address the dire waste management issue in the region, by leveraging technology, data analytics, and community engagement to build a sustainable zero-waste circular economy.
9.Suwa Bleaching Chemicals Limited (By Benjamin Baya)KILIFI COUNTY:Suwa Bleaching Chemicals Limited and manufactures offers an alternative high-standard bleaching agent from sugarcane wastes for refining crude palm oil.
10. Banana Fibre Extraction (Bafiex) Products (By Kenton Mutethia Muthaura)MERU COUNTY: Bafiex from Meru County is extracting natural fibres from the banana pseudo stem and pass it through boiling water, dried and dye into different colours according to client’s preferences. This natural fibre is used in fashion and textile industries in making wigs, braids, weaves, mats, eco-papers and Eco bags and house decors.
11.Wymbee (BY Jack Oloo) SIAYA COUNTY:Wymbee is a technology solution for MSMEs meant to help them tackle their deadstock problem. We connect sectoral micro-retailers through business communities & use these communities to funnel their quality dead-inventory in order to re-allocate them to areas where demand exists.
12. Greenium Energy (By Kevin Otieno)KAKAMEGA COUNTY: Greenium Energy is a social enterprise providing affordable and clean energy. We produce briquettes out of water hyacinth from Lake Victoria. One tone of briquettes produced saves more than 80 mature trees hence we discourage cutting down of trees and further increasing the forest cover.
13.Fibertext Green Paper Limited (By Rose Sikulu)BUNGOMA COUNTY: Fibertext Green Paper Limited makes biodegradable papers from banana waste which we turn them into packaging bags. And in so doing we are reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
14. Rhon (By Douglas Rono)KERICHO COUNTY:Rhon is a fintech company that brings together service providers and informal traders onto one platform allowing sustainable consumption of services.
15. Jayit creations (By Peter Achieng)BUSIA COUNTY: Sawdust building block innovation offers a groundbreaking solution for sustainable construction, addressing the pressing need for eco-friendly and cost-effective building materials. By utilizing sawdust, a waste product from wood.
16. Stockplug (By Rhyl Cruz Kiio)MACHAKOS COUNTY: Stockplug is the innovative solution by Agrilla Enterprises, it’s a multivendor online livestock marketplace. Tailored for farmers, it provides affordable listings and advertisements for livestock, starting at an enticing price of Ksh10. This platform seamlessly connects farmers to the expansive online market throughout Kenya, transforming the landscape of livestock trading.
17. Finda (By Amos Onyonka)KISII COUNTY: Finda is an innovative, user-friendly online platform that provides seamless digital marketing solutions for businesses of all categories hence promoting efficiency and digitization in the business ecosystem.
18. Greener Waste Converters (By Abraham Karani)THARAKA NITHI COUNTY:Greener waste converters have designed an Artificial-Intelligence-based wastepaper recycler capable of recycling about 1,200 A4 papers per hour. For highly contaminated waste papers, we produce eco-friendly and cost-effective secondary products such as paint and shoe polish.
19.Leafylife Innovation Hub (By Johnson Mboya)WAJIR COUNTY: LeafyLife, developed a unique energy efficient diaper recycling process. We designed chemical technology that uses benign organic chemicals to clean breakdown diapers into individual constituents and makes useful products from them.
20. Eco-Glass Innovations (By Peter Kinyua)NAKURU COUNTY:Eco-Glass Innovations leads a green revolution by repurposing discarded glass into high-quality products, aligned with our mission to reduce waste and save the environment. Beyond recycling, our commitment to environmental sustainability actively fosters local economic growth.
21.Jakey (By Gillian Nyangaga)HOMABAY COUNTY: JAKEY simplifies licensing for creators, fortifies intellectual property protection through blockchain, makes cross-border transactions seamless and global accessibility for artists and innovators.
22. Tft Grit (By Loroo Emmanuel)TURKANA COUNTY: Smart Climate Stool solves Deforestation Menace.
23. Adolescent and Young People Mental Health Champions (By Kirui Emmanwel)BOMET COUNTY: Mental health champions for youths and sexual reproductive health. We aim at providing mental health solutions in an affordable and accessible manner to youths in and outside Bomet county.
24.Digital Farmer (By Victor Ndaba)NYERI COUNTY: Digitalfarmer is a B2B and B2C platform streamlining the agricultural supply chain. Using our digital platform, we aggregate supply from our farmers and demand from our customers then bridge the two. We are on a mission to digitize African agriculture, every step of the way.
25: Carss Technologies (BY Maina Mburu)NYANDARUA COUNTY: The vehicle security system is the only existing system of its kind offering security in vehicles and houses. Added features for automation purposes by use of an application installed in the phone and an encrypted password.
26. Akili Sawa (By John Njiru)EMBU COUNTY: Akili Sawa seeks to democratise mental healthcare to all communities in Kenya through its data-driven solutions that will make well-being accessible, destigmatised, and prioritised.
27. Go Green by Blazing Barrys Youth Coffee (By Victor Murei)BUSIA COUNTY: Sawdust building block innovation offers a groundbreaking solution for sustainable construction, addressing the pressing need for eco-friendly and cost-effective building materials. By utilizing sawdust, a waste product from wood.
28. Marinecatch Africa Limited (By Kenndy Kitavi)KWALE COUNTY: MarineCatch Africa is an African seafood Marketplace which seamlessly integrates IoT and blockchain technologies, ensuring an end-to-end transparent and traceable supply chain. Empowering coastal communities, particularly women in the processing sector.
29. Wafugaji Digital (By Kenneth Kimathi)ISIOLO COUNTY: In northern Kenya & other livestock communities, the livestock industry is a crucial part of the economy. Our platform streamlines the process of buying and selling livestock, providing a unified marketplace accessible to everyone.
30. Presenter Sam (By Samwel Bob Mogire)UASIN GISHU COUNTY: Panda logo is an initiative that we started 2023 that uses art to fight effect of climate change, where youth buy a tree and get a logo, picture or tattoo of his/her choice for free.