5 women-led companies win Ksh 1 Million in seed funding

Standard Chartered and @iBizAfrica together with the Strathmore University recently announced the top five winners of this year’s Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator 2019. The event saw five women led teams shortlisted from over 170 applicants to win Ksh 1 million in seed funding for their businesses.

The five teams were selected from a pull of the top 10 teams previously shortlisted and were being incubated at @iBizAfrica-Strathmore University for 6 months where they were offered coaching, mentoring and business management skills to grow their businesses to the next level.

The five winning companies for 2019 are:

Abantu (Range) -a startup that focuses on the implementation of unique and innovative technology-based solutions to problems that they are passionate about solving.
Bumpy Maternity Wear – A fashion enterprise established in 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya with an aim of supplying measure to wear clothes for middle class working expectant mums.
Dermi Joy skincare – A local skincare brand that manufactures all natural cosmetics.
Nature’s Bowl enterprise – offers nutritious composite flours that are used to make meals for children and the whole family.
Lugha Ishara community-based organization – A community-based organization with a mission of achieving the transformational development of deaf children through technology-based innovations

The awardees will be supported with extended mentoring and milestone-based disbursement of the winnings for a period of 9 months.

Dr. Joseph Sevilla, Director @iBizAfrica- Strathmore University mentioned “It was a tough choice selecting the winners from the top 10 pull of very talented young people with brilliant ideas. These five teams have shown us dedication, willing to work and just like last year’s winners we are hopeful to see them succeed beyond this program and expand their businesses to grow beyond the Kenyan market.”

Strathmore University Vice Chancellor Designate, DR. Vincent Ogutu congratulated the winning teams and added “To innovate you have to be playful, experimental and be a person who never takes no for an answer. These are the qualities that the top entrepreneurs showcased”.

Speaking at the event Kariuki Ngari, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya mentioned, “In our country, SMEs contribute the biggest share to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and represent more than 75% of our working population”. I would like to appreciate all the Women in Tech participants for being the crème of more than 170 enterprises that applied to this program. Irrespective of the final outcome, remember that in your own right, you are positively transforming our country’s economy and creating more job opportunities. Just like the Bank, you are striving to be a force for good, promoting sustainable economic and social development in the markets and communities where we operate.”

The teams were shortlisted based on performance in the program’s 100 points criteria as follows:

Minimum eligibility: female founder, above 18 years, Kenyan nationality-5 points
Team-Does the team consist of at least 3 people with demonstrated capacity to execute: clearly defined roles, balanced skill set (team lead, business development, product development and marketing)-15 points
Problem–Is a real problem being addressed? Is there a clear description of this problem with evidence of real-life user pain points? –20 points
Solution-Is there problem/ solution fit? Is the solution innovative? Is the business leveraging on technology? Is the solution a new technology or a different way of doing things in the market? –15 points
Customer/users–Does the business have paying customers? Does the business have users of the product or the service? –15 points
Market–Is the market opportunity well described: total addressable, target and current market share? Are there high barriers of entry? How big is the market opportunity? –10 points
Business model -How does the business make money? Is it sustainable? Is the business scalable? –15 points
Social Impact–Does the business address any of the SDG goals? Is it highly relevant for Kenya in terms of social impact? –5 points