8 Kenyan innovators pocket Sh13 million at Mozilla Africa Innovation Challenge

Six Kenyan innovators walked away with Sh13 million in grants and they will also receive technical aid to further develop their products and position themselves in the market place.

This is courtesy of the first Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge hosted by tech giant Mozilla Corporation in teamwork with Nairobi County Government at Arboretum in Nairobi.

An intensive pitching and selection process settled on three tech start-ups (Getpayd, Deaf Elimu and Hali Halisi) and three student innovators (Classify Me, Audred and Mama Pesa).

The initiative identifies African tech entrepreneurs, startups and tech students to benefit from an acceleration programme to access technical support, grants and product markets.

Mozilla Corporation says the programme is also designed to promote innovation inspired by offering solutions for the unique challenges of users in different countries across Africa.

“Nairobi City County Government is working with Mozilla Africa Mradi to ensure that tech start-ups and innovators get access to grants and are enabled to access venture capital investments locally and globally,” said Nairobi governor Sakaja Johnson during the launch.

One such incubation hub is set up at Eastlands Library in Maringo, in Makadara empowering more than 20 startups to attract investors and also offers coding for children aged 7-13.

Student innovators segment winners. PHOTO | COURTESY

The Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge was unveiled in Nairobi in May and has been calling on tech innovators in Africa to develop original solutions for key African challenges.

“From 2015 Mozilla has distributed over $20 million through fellowships and awards to support individual and collective actions that nurture unique innovations that benefit communities,” stated Mozilla Corporation CEO and Chairwoman Mitchell Baker.

The 2022 Kenya Start-Up Ecosystem Report by Disrupt Africa identified a total of 308 tech start-ups that are active across the country that employ more than 11,000 Kenyans.

According to the report, only 50 per cent of the selected start-ups, majority of which are Fintech start-ups, have experienced acceleration or incubation in one way or another.

“Advancing Africa's Digital Economy is at the heart of ATU’s mandate. We work to create harmonized digital economies through standardized policy and regulatory frameworks for the African Region,” noted African Telecommunication Union (ATU) Secretary-General John Omo.

Our Digital Economy Blueprint has picked out Kenya as a regional leader in access to digital infrastructure and estimates that 55 per cent of jobs in Kenya will rely on digital skills by 2030.

Here are the details of the challenge winners and their winning innovations:

Name of startup/Students	CEO/Founder	Brief/Description
STUDENTS
MamaPesa	Juliet Wanjiru	Asset financing digital platform for women through credit. Our competitive advantage is that we strictly finance assets, offer financial literacy and match indecisive users to their desired assets via AI.
Audread	Joseph Gakah	An intelligent learning system that will utilize the power of Artificial intelligence and extended Reality to create realistic and revolutionary learning experience to refugees and learners from just their phones.
Classify Me	Lindah June Adhiambo	A personalized course recommender system for high school students.
START-UPS
Hali Halisi	Doleen Muthoni	Hali Halisi is a Kiswahili word that means the spirit of authenticity. It is a digital solution in Kenya and the African sign language space. We provide sign language interpreters to Deaf persons accessing healthcare services, through video and video relay services, regardless of the user’s location. Our main area of focus is expectant mothers accessing quality maternal healthcare, thus contributing to lowering the infant mortality rate. Our onboarding of interpreters ensures that interpreters are of a high standard with continuous access to training and resources to build their capacity which will ensure the Deaf have access to quality information.
Deaf eLimu Plus	Hudson Asiema Dorothy Andesia	Deaf-owned ed-tech company with a mission to provide equal access to education for the Deaf and hard-hearing community.
Getpayd	Japheth Achimba Benaiah Wepundi	A platform where you can create no code payment pages, generate payment links & QR codes, automate invoices and payment links and be supplied with AI powered analytics to help track and be adviced on the best financial management practices.