Kenyan startup Ojay Greene has been named winner of the Pitch for Impact startup pitching competition, winning US$100,000 in investment.
Disrupt Africa reported last week the Pitch for Impact competition took place in Nairobi, Kenya, as one of a number of events leading up the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held this weekend.
The Pitch for Impact competition was co-hosted by the Case Foundation, Village Capital, the DOEN Foundation and the Sorenson Global Impact Investing Center, and saw US$100,000 offered up to the winning startup.
Eight startups pitched their businesses to a panel of expert judges on Friday, including Jean and Steve Case – the creators of AOL, now leading investors -; impact investor Jim Sorenson; chief executive officer (CEO) of the CocaCola Africa Foundation, Susan Mboya, and Nina Tellegen, CEO of the DOEN Foundation.
Ojay Greene, an agribusiness that produces and sources fresh fruits and vegetables from smallholder farmers to sell to urban markets in Kenya, was crowned winner at the event.
“Ojay Greene represents the promise that Africa is truly open for business,” said Steve Case.
“We’re delighted to be in Nairobi, a rising entrepreneurial ecosystem not just in East Africa but in the world, and a great example of the increasing democratization of entrepreneurship.”
“We’re proud to have been investing in Africa for more than a decade, largely through grants to innovative NGOs from the Case Foundation,” said Jean Case.
“As believers in the idea that entrepreneurs and for-profit business models have a huge role to play in solving some of the world’s biggest problems, we’re delighted to expand our support to innovators in the private sector through this week’s focus on entrepreneurship in Africa,” she said.
The other seven startups to pitch at the event were Chamasoft; Politik; FarmDrive; FabFi; Strauss Energy; EFK Group; and FuturePump.
