Winners of the Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub (BDIH) and First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) Foundation pitch competition were announced after a pitch event held today.
There were two pitch categories, being "Existing Business" which had two cash prizes and "Prototype" which had one cash prize. In the Prototype category, the winners were "Doctors E-Consult", an online doctor consultation mobile app which aims to reduce congestion in medical facilities by acting as a doctor-patient consulting room on a mobile device.
In the "Existing Business" category, second place went to "Angular Creatives Lab" for their innovation "Mohiri" which is an Artificial Intelligence-driven assistant that sends personalised job alerts to subscribers. They got P100 000,00 for their efforts. First place, which was a P250 000,00 cash prize, went to "Organic Naturals" who manufacture organic, toxin-free skincare products using indigenous plants oils found in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Some other interesting innovations which were part of the pitch competition included Acron Mobile App by Acron Park which offers prospective tertiary students an opportunity to browse through available tertiary programmes, SkymartBW which is an online marketplace, Share-A-Ride App by Corrugated Minds which makes it easy to access public transport, QFlo App by Creative Insights which allows end-users to virtually book a spot in a queue, IoT Communications which is developing an affordable Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and PCG Software who have developed "Mogwebi CyberPlaza", a virtual networking and trade platform for connecting businesses to an online audience.
The judging panel comprised of, among others, Sethebe Manake from Vantage Properties, Arun Iyer from AlphaDirect Insurance as well as Mythri Sambasivan George from Angel Network Botswana.
The BIDH and FNBB Foundation partnership aims to support and develop Botswana home-grown innovative solutions by providing funding opportunities for eligible businesses and also encouraging participation of startups in solving challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.