Two Kenyan startups head to Silicon Valley for Intel apps contest
Intel Corporation Corporate Affairs Manager Suraj Shah (left) with Cabinet secretary ICT Fred Matiang'i during a briefing on Intel's sponsorship of Kenyan tech start-ups to Silicon Valley at Teleposta Towers on October 4, 2013. PHOTO/DIANA NGILA
What you need to know:
- Harmonics and mHealth Solutions beat twelve local firms that participated in the Intel Tech to Market Accelerator (T2MA) program.
- The startups will get an opportunity to showcase their business ideas as well as receive feedback from potential investors at the University of California, Berkeley.
Two Kenyan ICT startups are among 14 finalists that have qualified for this year’s Intel’s global program that helps innovators turn their ideas into products and link them to private equity investors.
The startups, Harmonics and mHealth Solutions Centre beat twelve local firms that participated in the Intel Tech to Market Accelerator (T2MA) program.
The Intel program, which attracted hundreds of participants across the global, is an annual lean start up accelerator and business plan competition focused on software applications.
It is aimed at bringing together young entrepreneurs to share their plans, turn ideas into business opportunities, and showcase those them to potential investors.
mHealth is a mobile web-based solution that addresses acute problems in the Kenyan health system such as cervical cancer, while Harmonics is a cloud-based platform that will help high school administrators manage data using mobile phones, personal computers and tablets.
The two firms are headed to University of California, Berkeley for the final phase of the competition where they will join other 12 finalist from across the globe.
“We look forward to meeting venture capitalists, angel investors, mentors, incubators and hopefully through these new connections raise $1 million in private seed capital in the next 12 months,” said Jason Monda of mHealth Solutions.
The startups will get an opportunity to showcase their business ideas as well as receive feedback from potential investors at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Budding mobile application developers find it difficult to market and commercialise their products however, such programs will now reverse this. The Intel’s initiative has yet again put our innovators on the global map,” Fred Matiang’i, ICT Cabinet secretary said during an event to announce the two finalist.
Intel’s initiative follows a similar one by Nokia, in partnership with World Bank’s inforDev and AppCampus rolled out mid this year that offered grants to budding mobile applications developers in a race aimed at enriching its smartphones and attract more consumers.
Other firms that have rolled out similar initiatives include, Safaricom in partnership with Vodafone Samsung and Ericsson among others.
