Three pioneering students named Classify Me, Audred, and Mama Pesa and three tech startups, Getpayd, Deaf Elimu, and Hali Halisi were recognized by Mozilla Corporation who hosted a 2 day Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge in conjunction with the Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) at the Arboretum Park in Nairobi this week. The pioneering students got a donation of KES 13 million 92,500 dollars and will also get technical aid to improve their services and enhance their stance in their industry.
At the event, Sakaja A. Johnson, the Nairobi County governor said, “Nairobi City County Government is working with Mozilla Africa Mradi to ensure that tech startups and innovators get access to grants and are enabled to access venture capital investments locally and globally.”
The event was created by Mozilla to assist the continent’s tech entrepreneurs and trainees establish their services and introduce them to the industry. The event helps the pioneers by providing technical aid, donations, and entry into the industry in order to realize their dreams. It further helps in advertising creativity led by the special requirements of the continent’s applicants.
Mozilla believes financing these African pioneers can advance inclusion and fairness in the digital future for citizens and others. The Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge event by Mozilla was only communicated last month.
Mozilla has, in past years, dedicated itself to enhancing creativity and also financed in the sum of 20 million dollars, the fellowships and awards to help people and combined actions that support creativity that adds value to local regions in Africa.
The CEO and chairwoman of Mozilla Corporation, Mitchell Baker said, “From 2015, Mozilla has distributed over $20 million through fellowships and awards to support individual and collective actions that nurture unique innovations that benefit communities.”
Presently there are 308 operational tech startups in Kenya, giving opportunities to about 11,000 citizens but only 50% of these have gone through any growth or incubation procedure based on a Kenyan Startup Ecosystem report last year.
Based on the above report, the Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge targets this gap by creating enabling infrastructures and help to tech pioneers in Kenya. Its aim is to assist the pioneers establish and advance their trade, adding to the total upgrade of the tech industry in Kenya.
