UGANDA: Mara Foundation brought together some young brilliant business minds for what was called the MaraBizHack. 8 groups of 3-6 people each gathered at the MaraFoundataion Launch Pad in Kampala Uganda to bring alive their business ideas.
The Business Hackathon that lasted for 48 hours was to bring together individuals to develop products, services and business solutions to solve certain challenges in the Ugandan society today. These products however were supposed to have a business element about them, thus teams were supposed to come up with a brand, an annual budget complete with an estimation of when the product will break even if it gets onto the market and how money will be earned from the product.
8 teams took part on the challenge and these were some of the solutions that earned the highest scores according to the judges. The Judges made the final decision according to the following criteria: Innovation, Market Oppurtunity, Go-To Market strategy, Sustainability, Business Model, Financial understanding, Product Demo, Fundability and Product Market Fit.
There were three winners:
E-Ride
The problem that they sought to solve was: “Too much wasted space and resources in Ugandan vehicles causing a problem of traffic jam.”
The solution that they created was: “an application that links between passengers and luggage owners to vehicle owners and drivers through the use of their mobile phones.”
This was the team that won the competition. They went home with a certificate, a motivational book, 6 months free of rental space at Mara Launch Pad and a fund of up to 10 million shillings subject to approval by the Mara Foundation. “It was a very great feeling for our team to emerge winners because that is the feeling we started with and had throughout the competition and I think is the reason we won”, a member of the team Mutebi Brian said. Other team members were: Ayesiga David, Mworozi Ivan, Kasule Isaac Moses Tayebwa Jesse and Alujjo Josephine.
The first runner-up was My Property. This team sought to solve the very wide gap between those who have real estate for sale, rent lease and those who want to rent, lease and buy real estate. Solution: My Property is a platform that provides a way for these types of people to meet, Real Estate owners list their property for a small fee, receive a notification every time someone makes an offer and those who need real estate can search and make offers on what they liked
About coming second in the competition, this what they had to say :“ It was a very great feeling for our team to emerge winners because that is the feeling we started with and had throughout the competition and I think is the reason we won.” The team members were members: Daniel Olel, Isaac Abok and Dennis Owachgui. They were only three. They won: up to 5 innovation spaces at Mara Launchpad for 6 months which comes with the promise of access to potential investors in our ideas and mentorship.
Tech Post Uganda came in third. The problem in biggest problem we are solving is providing the much needed local and relevant technological data and information to a wanting population and market.
The solution created was a web application that provides original, relevant, market leading technology data and information to Uganda and later to East Africa. The Group’s ‘buzz person, Patricia Kahill said that they hope to accomplish that by showcasing and reviewing local technological innovations and contextualizing international tech innovations to fit the Ugandan Scene.
Asked what it felt like to come in as number thee, they said : “It was great. We felt it was worth the midnight oil we had burnt during the 48 hours and considering the other groups we came 3rd…though it would have been nice to come first…” The group members wer : David Okwii, Onyait Odeke, Patricia Kahill, Frank Odongkara, Daniel Mwesigwa. They won free office space for 6 month at the Mara Launch Pad Uganda and business and financial mentorship.
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Reportage by Ruth Aine Tindyebwa, Youthhubafrica Correspondent, Uganda. Read her profile here
