Netherlands Trust Fund phase III beneficiary company wins WVEF Tech Challenge 2015

Greenbell Communications Ltd, a Kenyan Digital Marketing Agency which provides creative website solutions from creative website design, Intranets, to online marketing strategies and lead generation has won in this year’s joint ITC, Google, and CI&T WVEF Tech Challenge in addition to other web developers from Brazil, Costa Rica and Thailand.

The announcement was made during the closing ceremony at the Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum (WEVF), held in São Paulo, Brazil, in partnership with Apex-Brasil.

The Greenbell Communications bet more than 300 companies from across the world following a challenge to come up with a digital platform that will capture women entrepreneurs and help connect them to value chains.

The finalists – most of which are made up of teams of developers from more than one company or individual presented live presentations to juries and participants who decided on the overall winner.

The presentations were made during the Women Vendors’ Exhibition and Forum (WVEF), which was held at Hotel Maksoud Plaza Hotel, São Paulo, Brazil on 2-3 September.

Representing the GBC team in São Paulo, Catherine Njau, said: ‘We didn’t know what we were doing at first. It was a scary experience, but my boss pushed us to do it. We decided not to not stop until it worked and we needed the help of everyone on the team.”

The team had created a Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum application that aims to connect women entrepreneurs across the world. The GBC team consisted of Kenneth Muturi, Michael Buluma, Rose Maghas, Anastacia Ndunge, Eric Muthomi and Catherine Njau.

According to ITC Executive Director Arancha González said: ‘This is the first time that ITC has held such a tech challenge. It has confirmed that the innovative pool is a deep one and that technological platforms can be used to facilitate problems of access and connection that many female entrepreneurs face. All of the finalists showed an appreciation for these constraints and build solutions that economically empower the women in our network to grow through trade.’

ITC, Google and CI&T will in the coming months work closely with the winner of the tech challenge, the GBC team from Kenya, to further develop and launch the final product in 2015. In addition, the GBC were invited to present the project at the upcoming World Export Development Forum, which will be held in Doha, Qatar, on 20-21 October.

The runners-up included-Women on Business from Costa Rica, the WomenSupply App from Brazil, The Market Matcher from Thailand and Empowerit from Brazil.