Denis Opudo
There are many startup events that have come up in the recent past. But some of them do not meet the required standards. For instance, the MWC event makes startups to have a complex role. The event is meant for new innovations and startups. However, it is dominated by big corporations. One of the solutions to handle that scenario is 4YFN and this has made it more popular. MWC should focus more on its startup components. This is given to the fact that the world now has more pitching events and startups.
Currently, 4YFN has many startups and encouraging panels and presentations. But the quality of startups varies. Averagely the quality of the event is lower than that of other events. This might be because the government and regions subsidize for local startups. Such startups might not possess any quality to get them there. We can state that 4YFN only offer startups with information and contacts on funding opportunities. The event comprises of corporate venture and capitalists. Moreover many speeches and panels about funding options and criteria are available.
Venture capitalists always have the same part of the story more so those from Silicon Valley. There are much money and lack of real talent. It is challenging to those entrepreneurs who have worked for long to get funding for their activities. The story is different for the Silicon Valley people. They are able to look for good startups in such like events found worldwide. The only encouraging startups at the MWC are ones from developing countries. A good example is those from South East Asia, Africa, and LATAM. Battle finalists’ category had good startups and innovations that go well with MWC.
Kenya produced Twiga Foods startup. It improves the supply chain of African farmers to retailers. The startup that helps farmers to have better pays already has 6,000 retailers in its platform. Brokoli from Barcelona is an Insutech startup. It develops a mobile app to manage insurance policies. Israel had Jelurida which is a blockchain. It gives public and private blockchain services to parties that want to use decentralized solutions. Another Israel startup is Viisight. Viisight is a video analytics intelligence platform. They have machine learning competence and their solutions can analyze video stream. Zapiens from Spain offers knowledge sharing platforms. Furthermore, it gives free services to universities for free. This is only if the universities are ready to offer free information. Colombia has Mobijob that gives mobile services for companies to source for freelancers.
The above startups are the ideal example of startups that represent the best part of the event. They are linked to mobile services and offer solutions to various problems. MWC should look for better criteria to select startups for the event. This will give the event better standards.
