NIW Startups selection, judging criteria unveiled

Following the announcement, by the Nairobi Innovation Week (NIW) Startups team, that deadline for applications to join the program is 31st January 2018, the panel has now announced the criteria of judging.

The judges will go through applications to select the top 100 pitches for the NIW. The committee will ultimately fete 15 out of the 100 most promising startups.

For a startup to be among the 100 pitches, it needs to set up its profile on the event’s portal. The startup profiles capture criteria items for evaluation by judges including links to profiles of individual team members within the portal.

The four main criteria for judging are;

Ingenuity of the Idea or Product
Scalability & Impact
Traction (progress) & Next steps
Team composition & commitment

The NIW judging criteria are available here. In essence, the judging will look at the entreprise holistically. “Team composition will be a very important parameter in assessing startups throughout NIW Startups. It will demonstrate how well the founder can sell their vision and line up the right talent for their business to grow”, said John Kieti who is the NIW Startups Coordinator in 2018.

This year, NIW has partnered with over 25 startup enablers within the ecosystem including Metta, Sinapis and Nailab. Apart from the enablers, other judges at the event will include angel investors and investment analysts from VC firms.

NIW will announce the winning startups, once selected among the 100 pitches, on their website and social media handles on 18th February 2018.

On 29th Feb 2018, NIW will announce the startups that will be among the 100 pitches at NIW2018. From these pitches, Kenya’s 15 most promising startups will be feted.