Denis Opudo
The backbone of any startup is the availability of enough funds. This is irrespective of the stage the startup is in. Many business ideas have ended up not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel due to insufficient funding. Therefore, investors have come up with a number of ways of funding startups both locally and internationally. The main one has always been seed funding that has now been the order of the day in Africa.
It has helped many startups in their survival. Some have taken place in Africa for the first time. For instance, the Seedstars Cairo held its first ever pitching event in Africa.
The event took place in Cairo, Egypt on 4th May 2018 and 7kemma, a home nursing service provider became the winner. The event was the first one among many that Seedstars have put in place for its world tour in 2018. 7kemma won the funding after outplaying five other startups that participated in the event. The judges included the Meghan Warner, the Seedstars World MENA regional manager, Mohammed Assad, the Averroes Ventures venture capital associate, Hanan Abdel Meguid CEO of Kamelizer, and Nosha Shaker the head of digital ventures and strategic alliance at CIB. Both of them agreed unanimously that 7kemma deserved the award.
According to the startup’s CEO Amr Nakrn, they were filled with joy the moment startup’s name came out as the winner. He also said that the award came at the right time. This is because they were organizing a short round of funding. They are also negotiating with accelerator programs and angel investors. This gives the startup confidence that it will be able to secure the best valuation ever.
Based in Cairo, 7kemma is one of the first ever home nursing services in the Middle East and North African region (MENA). Its online platform is available both in Android’s Google Play store and iOS App Store. The online platform allows users to link with the closest skilled nurses and secure scheduled nursing services at their doorstep.
The award came with a ticket to take part in the Seedstars Summit to be held in Switzerland in April 2019. The first runners-up was Odiggo, an online e-commerce platform that sells car spare parts. The second-runners up went to HitchHicker, a social network startup that links travelers to goods for transport. The fourth position went to Skolera, an edtech firm and finally Vapulus, a fintech startup took the fifth position.
