Airtel Nigeria revealed the names of six winners in Catapult-A-Startup initiative at an event which took place at the Airtel HQ, Plot L2, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos
The winners are Pass.Ng, Yuzah, PushCV, Sonbim Games, MatchUP, Blubird and ChopUp.
From the 380 online applications, top 75 startups were shortlisted based on the potential and clarity of their ideas. These shortlisted startups were invited for a Pitching Event at Airtel HQ, held over a period of 3 days from 4 Feb to 6 Feb, 2015. The shortlisted startups presented their ideas to an esteemed panel of judges, comprising of industry veterans from Airtel and our partners – Mobile Monday, Intel, Google etc. The evaluations done by the judges during the Pitching Event were in 3 broad areas – Technical capability, Commercial potential and Organization structure.
The evaluations from the Pitching Event were collated and the final winners were selected and announced.
Each of the winning startup receives N1 million cash prize and a fantastic opportunity to be a part of the Catapult-a-Startup program. Airtel and its partners will now work in collaboration with the winning startups to make their businesses big.
Here are the winners:
Pass.ng helps students prepare for Nigeria’s most important admission examination, JAMB . The solution simulates the exam electronically, tracks progress, provides explanation to questions, is optimized for mobile and is available offline.
Yuzah provides an on-demand marketplace, via a mobile app, for buyers and sellers of diesel for home or office delivery.
PushCV is a career-guiding service that connects employers to talents, offers trainings to individuals as well as staff engagement and retention solutions for SMEs. PushCV has been helping hundreds of SMEs efficiently hire, train and retain their best talents at extremely affordable rates.
Sonbim Games
Sonbim develops fun top quality mobile games with unique local African content yet which appeal to a global audience.
MatchUP
MatchUp helps people who are looking – find love by matching their individual profiles and interests to those of people they are likely to hit it off with.
Blubird
Blubird is an innovative retail management application (proudly built in Nigeria) that is currently transforming Nigerian retail businesses such as fast food outlets, supermarkets, chemists and wine shops.
ChopUp
Chopup is a social gaming company building locally relevant games of for mobile Africa. They tell African narrative through games and their games allow users to interact based on in-game achievements and revenue is driven by in-app purchases, in-game adverts and brand placements.
The judges for the initiative were:
- Segun Ogunsanya, CEO, Airtel
- Nitin Anand, Director, Data Products and Services, Airtel
- Tomi Davies, Executive Chairman, Mobile Monday
- Francis Ebuehi, Director, Value Added Services, Airtel
- Kunle Arofin, Director, BI and Revenue Planning, Airtel
- Chukwuemeka Afigbo –Program Manager, Developer Relations, Google
- Tobi Oke – Director, Intel Capital
- Teju Ajani-Lead, Content Partnerships, Google
- Folake Oyekanmi– Strategic Partnership, Intel
- Ajay Satyarthi, CTO, Wipro
- Chika Nwobi, MD, i5labs
