PIVOT East 2016 now accepting entries, submission deadline is September 8




The organizing team of PIVOT East 2016 has announced the Call for Applications for this year’s edition of the contest.

PIVOT East, Africa’s biggest startups competition and conference held annually since 2011, comprises of a series of activities that will culminate in the finalists conference which will be held on November 15, 2016. The conference is organized by m:lab East Africa, an initiative of the iHub.

PIVOT East aims to catalyse the growth of startups, so as to amplify and consolidate the gains of East Africa’s digital entrepreneurship ecosystem. The key objective for this year’s event is “to facilitate discovery of the next wave of high potential startups in the region”.

Startups from across the region that meet the requirement can start applying for the competition. Entries to the competition are to be submitted here while details on the eligibility criteria can be found online.

Applications to compete in 2016 will be entered as detailed startup profiles which describe the customer pain, the startups solution, revenue streams, team composition and commitment, market traction, short-term projections and milestones among other aspects.

The overall startup profile will be used by the competition judges who will mostly be investors to score the potential of the startup to become a sustainable high growth enterprise.

The competition has five categories which are; Finance, Enterprise, Entertainment, Utilities and Society and Governance. Each category will feature five finalists who will pitch to an audience of Investors, Development Partners, Government Representatives, Telecom Operators and other key stakeholders from East Africa.

The 25 finalists will receive training and coaching on how to pitch to investors.

Startups that reached final 25 lists of PIVOT 2011 , PIVOT 2012 , PIVOT 2013 , PIVOT 2014 , and PIVOT 2015 will not be allowed to compete with products/services previously submitted for the competition. The judging panel will have discretion to disqualify entries in breach of this requirement. Companies that entered the competition but did not make it to the finals can compete with the same product.

The deadline for submission of applications is September 8, 2016. Applicants are encouraged to start building and curating their startup profiles early as they might need to research or source some of the information required widely. Applicants are also required to upload a short (max 5 mins) video of the founders expressing the mission and strength of their startups on their VC4Africa profile.

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