Six Nigerian early stage tech start-ups recently, during a pitch session sponsored by the Growth Academy (a business accelerator programme), presented their ideas to angel investors.
Held at the Co-creation Hub office, at 294 Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, participating start-ups included iPolice, JobsInNigeria, CABAN, GRAID, Nearest Locator and BooshParrot.
In his introductory remarks, Pre-incubation and Research Lead of the Co-creation Hub, Tunji Elesho, took the audience through on the preparation put into the process by the start-ups.
“Structured approach to understanding the market was carried out by the start-up firms by getting them to test-run their apps in the market, among the everyday person.” This they did for 30 days.
Also, according to Elesho, “the six start-ups spent a week working with Futurice (a Finland based global mobile software firm), enhancing their technical expertise around mobile application development and user driven design.”
In a space of four months, the six start-ups underwent training and mentorship with modules around business model development, implementation plan and lean product development coordinated by the Co-Creation Hub.
Earlier on, speaking to Youth Hub Africa, Elesho had said that the aim of the programme is “to nurture the start of innovative tech ventures that will possibly disrupt the way we live and do business in Nigeria.”
During presentations by spokespersons of the different start-ups, each team tried convincing the angel investors on the reason why their apps should be the idea of choice if they were considering investing.
Longe Busayo of GRAID gave an insight of the workings of the app, saying it “focuses on helping poultry farmers understand the feed compositions they are giving their birds, if they meet up to standard.”
Asked why his team decided on focusing on feed composition, Busayo said, “Farmers we spoke with said feed composition is where they have challenge. We also learned that they spend 80 per cent of their budget on feeds.”
Andrew Ogbewele of the NEAREST LOCATOR introduced the app as a “location-based app that enables users find the nearest place of choice, whether it is a hangout, hospital, an ATM, events or even a deal.”
One of the ideas to have received a nod from the angel investors was iPOLICE. According to Ihesie Peter, the app is a “security and safety solution app that helps Nigerians with tools and information to live safely and improve their security consciousness.”
Then came JOBS IN NIGERIA, a one-stop portal for all jobs in Nigeria. According to Dele Bakare, this works well on the web and mobile phones. Bakare said the idea “is a job aggregate platform that filters available jobs from several job websites and portals in Nigeria.”
BOOSHPARROT, another idea, according to Fredrick Atoyebi, “helps users to stay abreast of social media happenings.” On their target market, he said, “we are targeting tertiary students and the Nigerian young professionals.”
The last team was CABAN, a Nigerian property search portal. According to Bukola Akinfaderin, “CABAN helps both renter and buyer to easily search for properties within their desired location.” CABAN also got a nod from the angel investors.
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Reporting by Ojo Maduekwe, Nigerian Correspondent
