Enterprise

Nairobi boot camp to help start-ups jumpstart ideas

app

App developers at an event at the iHub in Nairobi in 2015. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Startups from the East Africa region will this week congregate in Nairobi to pitch their products and network with investors in an event organised by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the iHub.

Twenty high-growth startups have over the last six months been undergoing training and mentorship. The startups, drawn from five East African countries, will now spend a week in Nairobi in a boot camp.

At the end of the camp, they will participate in a demo event on September 22 where they will showcase their products to investors and interact with other entrepreneurs.

The organisers have asked investors and partners to express their interest in the event before the end of Tuesday.

The start-ups are drawn from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.

READ: Alibaba gives Sh1bn to support 200 African online businesses

The programme is funded by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Kenya.

Startups that have been participating in the Traction Camp include Kenya’s Bluewave Insurance Agency, an online platform for micro insurance products and Illuminum Greenhouses, a company that provides incorporates Internet of Things (IoT) technology into greenhouse farming.

Although East Africa is vibrant with tech startups, most of them find difficulties in scaling up their ideas into viable businesses.

Programmes such as these are meant to bridge this gap, and to help local innovators accelerate their ideas into sustainable enterprises.