Denis Opudo
The fourth edition of Nairobi Innovation Week (NIW) will be held between 5th and 9th March 2018. Applications for the NIW program will end on 31st January 2018. Registrations are still ongoing interested startups are encouraged to apply before the deadline. Applications are open to idea stage, early stage and growth stage African startups.
A total of 100 startups will take part in the program after selection. Selection will take place based on three criteria. The criteria include scale and impact, traction and team composition and namely ingenuity. The selected startups will be known on 29th February 2018. The selected startups will access many NIW’s partners. The partners include Finland’s foreign affairs ministry, Metta Viktoria Ventures, and Unicef. iBiz Africa is also one of the partners.
The program will help in exposing the selected startups. Apart from that, the startups will get many funding opportunities. The funding includes cash worth of $10,000. They will also get incubation support from Villgro Kenya worth Sh1 million. The money will go to the most promising startup issued by the University of Nairobi. There will be a price of $5,000 for people’s choice awards. Villgro Kenya is a global health impact health investor. The event will also offer startups access to media and investors.
Startups should take part in such opportunities. There are many startups which fail to prosper due to lack of funding or exposure. Some also don’t do well because of lack of ideas on how to run the startups. The time is ripe when Kenyan startups should enjoy programs like NIW’s. But startups should always go for ideas that tend to solve the local problems. The local problems are best solved by the local startups. They are the ones who know where the problems lie. Investors are ready to come in but if only the ideas are much constructive. They should first develop confident with where their money is going.
