Kenyan tech startup – Nims – wins Istanbul Challenge 2015

Nims, a Kenyan startup, emerged as the winner of the Startup Istanbul Challenge 2015 with igrow and taskulu taking second and third positions respectively.

The announcement was made through a post on Nims’ official blog; the post highlighted the improving quality of competitors at the Startup Istanbul Challenge over the years and described this as a reason for startups to participate.

“The event Startup Istanbul is with each passing year attracting more and more startup sign ups and has positioned itself as the global events to watch out for. It is by all means the event to attend for anyone or companies looking into invest in startups with great innovations,” the post read.

Nims was founded by Louis Wajeiya and Ian Karega with the main aim of eliminating fraud and improving transparency and efficiency,  Nims was one of over 100 startups from over 40 different countries participating in Startup Istanbul Challenge 2015.

Startup Istanbul Challenge 2015 took five days to conclude, day 1 and 2 of this year’s challenge had activities involving; Pitching, Training and mentor ship of the selected 100 startups.

The third day was set aside for the remaining 50 selected startups to pitch to the judging panel with only investors having being invited to attend the demo.

At the end of the third day, the top 16 startups are selected, the 16 selected startups were:

iGrow from Indonesia, Mytoddlr from Nigeria, Nims from Kenya, WePress from Dubai, Security Wall from Pakistan, Expensya from Tunis, Taskulu from Iran, Waveit from Isreael, Pockee from Greece, Melissa Climate from Bulgaria, WebHR from Pakistan, Hajj Guider from Pakistan, Gaming Battle Ground, Welcome from Greece, Transterra Media, Picturesqe from Hungary.

The 16 then compete in the Semi Finals on day 4; where the semi-finalists pitch for a chance to make it to the finals. And on the fifth day the winners are announced.

“The quality of pitches this year was in very high level and it was very tough choice when it came to naming the top 3 winners. After all, the jury made their decision and the winners were announced,” read a statement by the event organizers.