Kenya’s OkHi and Nigeria’s Green Energy both emerged from the Seedstars World final in Geneva with awards, though African startups missed out to Philippines company Salarium in the race for the grand prize of US$500,000 equity investment.
Disrupt Africa reported last month eight African startups would pitch at the Seedstars World global startup competition in Geneva, Switzerland: Beam from Ghana, OkHi from Kenya, Green Energy from Nigeria, Torque from Rwanda, Poeyek from Senegal, Lumkani from South Africa, Remit from Uganda, and myVLE from Morocco.
HR resource Salarium took the top prize, but African startups performed highly. Nairobi’s OkHi took home the Public Vote award, picked by participants, for its smartphone geo-localisation solution, and is now up for funding via the Seedstars World Crowd Fund.
Nigeria’s Green Energy, which turns plastic waste into petrol, was named “Most Innovative” by the The School of Management, Fribourg.
Seedstars World during last year hosted local competitions in 36 countries to find the best locally-grown startups, and in 2015 will visit 50 cities.
