TechCrunch brings the Startup Battlefield competition to Nairobi this October

TechCrunch in partnership with Facebook will this year for the first time host its start-up competition in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We’ve wanted to bring TechCrunch to Africa for a long time, and now thanks to our sponsor Facebook, we will bring the Startup Battlefield competition, to Nairobi on October 11 this year,” read a post on the website.

TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield is a preeminent startup competition. The Battlefield features 15-30 top early stage startups pitching top judges in front of a vast live audience, present in person and online. The winner takes away the Disrupt Cup and check for $50,000, and all the contestants enjoy immense press, investor and partner attention, along with membership in the elite ranks of Battlefield alums.

Those include companies like Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, Tripit, Redbeacon, Qwiki, Getaround, and Soluto. The statistics on the 648 startups that have participated since the first competition. in aggregate, as of February 2017, they have raised $6.9 billion, while 95 have been acquired or have gone public.

Tech Crunch will be looking for Sub-Saharan Africa’s best innovators, makers and technical entrepreneurs to participate in TechCrunch Battlefield Africa 2017. Startups can apply to three categories: social good, productivity and utility, gaming and entertainment.

TechCrunch will host the event in Nairobi in front of a live audience and top judges, and will live stam the show on TechCrunch and Facebook so the rest of the world can tune in.

The judges will choose a winner in each category and select an overall winner, “Sub-Saharan Africa’s Most Promising Startup,” whose founders will win $25,000 USD in no-equity cash plus an all-expense paid trip for two to San Francisco to compete in the Battlefield at TechCrunch’s flagship event, Disrupt SF 2018.
Here’s how to participate

Startups must fit into one of three categories (social good, productivity and utility, gaming and entertainment) to participate. Five startups in each category will be selected to join us on stage for the Battlefield Africa in Nairobi.

Apart from clear relevance to one of the three themes, qualifying startups should: Be early-stage companies in “launch” stage, Be a resident from our eligible countries, Have a fully working product/beta, reasonably close to or in production, Have received limited press or publicity to date and Have no known intellectual property conflicts

Apart from the exposure that comes from pitching to the global TechCrunch audience as well as the live audience of distinguished technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors in Nairobi, the overall winner will receive $25,000 in no-equity cash plus an all-expense paid trip for two to San Francisco to compete in Battlefield at TechCrunch’s flagship event, Disrupt SF 2018.

The TechCrunch editors who run the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition will choose the finalists from the application pool. TechCrunch and Facebook will select four judges for each theme. They will be noted entrepreneurs, investors and technologists with experience relevant to the category. A TechCrunch editor will moderate the judging, and cast the tie-breaker ballot, if needed.

The application deadline stands on July 14th, 2017 at 5pm and the first list of finalists will be realised on August 21st, 2017 at 5pm PST.

Residents in the following countries may apply: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

TechCrunch stages the Battlefield four times a year, once at each of our three Disrupt conferences, — in New York City, San Francisco, and London– and also at a special Hardware Battlefield at CES in Las Vegas. Applications to each Battlefield open three months before the actual event. To be eligible, startups must be launching to the public for the first time and have little to no prior press exposure.