Five Rwandan tech-innovators will on Saturday, December 11, go head-to-head to prize-fight for a total of $100,000 of the Hanga Pitchfest competition. The finalists were announced Thursday after completing a boot camp stage that will be preceded by the grand pitch day. They finalists represent various companies including Afri-farmers market, BAG, AFriduino Ltd, Karisimbi Tech, and Second Life Storage. Speaking to The New Times in an exclusive interview, Angelos Munezero, Public Sector Digitisation Analyst at the Ministry of ICT and Innovation said, the finalists have been able to develop pilot tech solutions in key sectors such as smart farming, Ed-tech, e-health, and e-waste just to name a few. The competition will award the top start-up with $50,000. Four runners-up start-ups will also be awarded with $12,500 each. President Paul Kagame is expected to grace the awarding ceremony at the Kigali Arena. Hanga Pitchfest Startup competition, in its inaugural edition, was launched last month attracting over 400 applications from innovators across the country. The programme organised by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation as well as the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) aims to provide a platform to showcase tech-entrepreneurs and creative talent from all over the country. “This exercise has demonstrated that Rwandan innovators understand gaps, and thus the opportunities, in the various economic value chains of the country,” Munezero said. It has also showcased, he added, that they possess the requisite technical foundation to pilot and deploy tech powered solutions. “There was a strong interest in e-health, smart farming and e-commerce, as well as edtech,” he pointed out, “With the advent of covid-19, these are the most hit sectors, hence demonstrating a strong demand for tech powered solutions to alleviate these consequences.” Selection process Out of the 400 applications, only 45 start-ups qualified to present their innovative solutions to a panel of judges, out of which twenty five were selected to proceed to the boot camp stage. The two-week boot camp among others prepared the selected startups for the final round of pitching and building their capacity in key areas such as, investment readiness, market penetration and customer growth, according to the Ministry of ICT and Innovation. Besides the cash prizes, Hanga Pitchfest will also include exhibitions from technology companies, startups and support organizations as well as masterclasses and live performances. Saturday’s event will bring together students from across the country, young entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and partners in Rwanda’s innovation and technology sector. Impressive women participation There was a strong participation from women innovators, Munezero said. For instance, he said, one of the top finalists is a woman by the name of Diane Cyuzuzo. “She is using Smart home Technologies to transform Rwandan Cultural tools and securing them a spot in the future of IoT devices, also we’ve identified that among all the 5 finalists’ teams, they have more women working on different portfolios in these startups.” This, as Munezero put it, “Was impressive and we’re building on this momentum to continuously propel women’s participation in the tech and Innovation sector.”
