Chase Bank to sponsor PIVOT East

Chase Bank Kenya has been confirmed as the sponsor of this year’s PIVOT East startup pitching event, which will take place next Wednesday, July 22.

Disrupt Africa reported last month 25 finalists had been chosen in five categories to pitch at the East African mobile startups pitching competition, with all the startups currently undergoing training in advance of the event. Weza Tele chief executive officer Hilda Moraa will be keynote speaker.

Chase Bank has now been confirmed as the sponsor, with head of digital banking Eddie Ndichu saying innovation was a crucial strand of the company’s DNA, and that it has been supporting tech entrepreneurship in the region for many years.

“At Chase Bank, we are consistently at the forefront of supporting and enabling the youth and SMEs actualise their ideas into income earning ventures. It is for this reason that we are proud to be associated with these great innovations together with m:lab that will see young entrepreneurs’ innovative ideas become reality,” he said.

Disrupt Africa reported last month Chase Bank launched SME Biz Hubs in Nairobi and Mombasa, providing a physical setting for entrepreneurs to meet and obtain access to advisory services. The bank also recently partnered the iHub incubator in Nairobi in an arrangement that will see the two organisations collaborate on advancing the country’s tech ecosystem and offering more innovative services to the bank’s customers and the general public.

Other sponsors of the competition are Making All Voices Count (MAVC) and Homeboyz, while Disrupt Africa is a media partner.

There will be 25 startups pitching at PIVOT East, including 17 from Kenya, six from Tanzania, and one each from Uganda and Rwanda.

In the Finance category, BitFinance (Kenya/Zimbabwe), Eko Biashara (Kenya), Hisa Play (Kenya), Shield Finance (Kenya) and V-Money (Tanzania) will go head to head, while the Enterprise category finalists are all from Kenya, namely Duma Works, Djuaji, Tenderpreneur.net, Mobu and SaniCMS.