Kenya’s M-Kifafa wins a Shark Tank competition bagging $50,000

Kenya’s M-Kifafa emerged as one of the winner of a “Shark Tank” competition during this year’s Epilepsy Foundation Pipeline Conference hosted by, Epilepsy Foundation taking home a $50,000 (Ksh.5,000,000) cash prize.

“The pipeline conference allows the epilepsy community, government representatives, and industry partners to all meet together to discuss the best paths forward and to hear about new therapies and diagnostic devices in early and late development,” said Jacqueline French MD, chief scientific officer of the Epilepsy Foundation and professor of neurology at New York University.

“It is impossible not to feel a sense of optimism with so many innovative and novel potential new interventions at hand. This year we were also treated to six very novel and exciting epilepsy proposals from all over the world in the “Shark Tank” competition, an annual event which helps entrepreneurs with innovative ideas obtain visibility and financial support.” French added.

During the “Shark Tank” competition, innovators present in hopes of receiving an investment of up to $200,000 (Ksh.20,000,000). The funding will be used to advance their project to the next phase of development.

The audience participated in a live voting process that, along with the judges votes, eventually led to the following winners of the competition:

Instant EEG presented by Aswin Gunasekar, founder of Zeto Inc. took home a $150,000 (Ksh.15,000,000) cash prize.  Electroencephalography, or EEG, is the most common and important test for diagnosing epilepsy because it records electrical activity of the brain. Instant EEG is a technology designed to make this test more convenient, easy to use, and accessible.

M-Kifafa presented by Rosemary Gathara, program coordinator for the Kenya Association for the Welfare of People with epilepsy took home a $50,000 cash prize. M-Kifafa is mobile technology designed to increase epilepsy awareness in Kenya, where 800,000 people currently suffer from epilepsy and fewer than 20% have been identified, diagnosed, and treated.

In total, 65 individuals or teams entered the “Shark Tank” competition from across the U.S. and 13 countries around the world. Other finalists competing this year, who each won a prize of $5,000 (Ksh.500,000), were:

#EpiBear presented by Emily Hoover – a teddy bear that provides comfort to children with epilepsy,

IR Hat presented by Jason Hancock, Impact Reduction Technologies- impact resistant technology that makes life a bit safer for those who have epilepsy,

EpiNightNurse presented by Tamara and Joachim Coche- an Internet-based system for nightly video and audio monitoring of people with epilepsy,

Mobile micro-groups and semantic enabled self management presented by Abbas Hasan, COO of Pearson’s – a tool to get people talking about their epilepsy and to provide personalized support to help them better self-manage.

The “Shark Tank” judges present included:

Rick Harrison of TV’s “Pawn Stars” and Epilepsy Foundation Board member, Nathan Fountain MD, chair of the Foundation’s Professional Advisory Board and professor of neurology and director of the F.E. Dreifuss Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the University of Virginia, Joseph Sirven MD, editor-in-chief of epilepsy.com and professor of neurology and chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Tom Stanton, executive director of the Danny Did Foundation and Brooke Gordon, Foundation Board member.