OmoAlata emerged the winner of the She Leads Africa Pitch that took place on Saturday, the 26th of September 2015. The second place went to Kamokini, a Nigerian swimwear brand and third place went to Heat Free Hair Movement which produces natural curl hair extensions.
Founder of OmoAlata, Kasope Ladipo-Ajai went home with the $10,000 top prize, technology prizes from Etisalat and 3-months of support from Zippy Logistics. She will also Kambili Ngozi Ofili-Okonkwo of Kamonini and Ngozi Opara of Heat Free Hair received US$5 000 and US$1 000 respectively
Other startups that reached the final stage include Heels in the Kitchen, Instahealth, and BeautyRevNG,
OmoAlata produces Nigeria’s first NAFDAC approved 100% organic packaged blended peppermix. The “McPeppers” brand allows consumers to significantly cut down the time required to cook traditional Nigerian dishes.
These six finalists emerged out of 400 applications from 30 countries in this 2015 competition. Judges for the night were billionaire Tunde Folawiyo, founder of EbonyLife TV Mo Abudu, IFC country chief Eme Essien, Sub-Saharan MD for the Carlyle Group Genevieve Sangudi, former Nigerian ICT minister Dr. Omobola Johnson, Lebanese multi-millionaire and CEO of IHS Towers Issam Darwish and GTBank representative Femi Nedd..
The event was well attended by over 250 entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors who were all eager to get a glimpse of the next generation of Africa’s leading female entrepreneurs. Notable attendees included Etisalat Chairman and Africa’s 34th richest man Hakeem Belo-Osagie, former Senator Udo-Udoma and his wife general counsel Europe, Eurasia and Middle East for Chevron Sally Udoma, former general manager of Finance for Nigeria’s National Petroleum Company Amoge Jipreze, founder of women’s angel network Suzanne Andrews, Managing Director of TechStars Jason Seats and many more.
Speaking about the event and She Leads Africa’s broader mission, co-founder Afua Osei said “We started She Leads Africa because we were disappointed by the stereotypical image of African women as small-scale entrepreneurs building micro businesses. For the second year in a row we have proven that this is far from reality. We have proven to the world that African women can and are building innovative companies that have the potential to be multi-million dollar businesses.”
Here is a full coverage of the event, courtesy of Ndani TV
