The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has presented the top 10 start-ups to proceed to the ‘Demo Day’ of the NPI 2.0.
The top 10 innovators were shortlisted after a week-long accelerator programme (physical boot camp) that culminated in the recently concluded mini-demo day, where 25 innovators pitched their solutions before an expert panel of business and technology leaders.
The top 10 businesses drawn from multiple sectors of the economy emerged from evaluations based on key parameters like scalability, product-to-market fit, financial projections, unique value proposition, competitor analysis and targeted market size among others.
The innovators shortlisted include: Yalo Technologies, BetaLife Health, Magic Carpet Studios, MaterialsPro, Doktorconnect, PaveHQ, VPay Africa, TribaPay, Kunda Kids and Sycamore.
These innovators will vie for a combined prize value of US$220,000 on Demo Day and participate in a five-week, all-expense paid training at Draper University, Silicon Valley USA.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aminu Umar-Sadiq while commenting on this development, expressed delight at the growing acceptance of the NPI programme in the Nigerian technology ecosystem.
Umar-Sadiq said, “The authority recognises the pivotal role that technology plays to propel positive socio-economic outcomes, hence our commitment to expand the development of this sector. Through the NPI, we remain focused on advancing innovative solutions to domestic challenges, capacity building for early-stage businesses and economic empowerment through job creation”.
The NPI is the authority’s strategic initiative to identify, nurture and build early-stage businesses for transformative impact.
Now in its second year, it has rapidly gained acceptance within the technology and start-up eco-system as more credible and eligible Nigerian innovators have shown significant interest in it.
The call for application stage in the first quarter of the year had over 7,000 applications, and this was pruned down to 100 businesses at the virtual accelerator stage and further reduced to 26 businesses for the physical boot camp, leading to 25 businesses progressing to the mini demo day out of which the top 10 innovators have emerged.
The four-stage competition is focused on enhancing the Nigerian technology ecosystem and aligns with the Authority’s mandate to catalyse economic development in Nigeria.
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