Kenyan Tech Start-ups Win Sh13M at Mozilla’s Africa Innovation Challenge

Mozilla Corporation in collaboration with Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) hosted the inaugural Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge at the Arboretum Park in Nairobi.

Three tech start-ups, Getpayd, Deaf Elimu, and Hali Halisi, as well as three student innovators, Classify Me, Audred, and Mama Pesa, were chosen through a rigorous pitching and selection process.

The innovators will receive technical support to develop their ideas and establish themselves in the market, in addition to grants totaling Sh13 million.

The program’s goal is to identify African digital firms, entrepreneurs, and students that can gain from an acceleration program that offers technical assistance, grants access, and ultimately market access for their goods.

The initiative of the program is to encourage innovation that is driven by and founded on the particular needs of consumers on the African continent.

“Nairobi City County Government is working with Mozilla Africa Mradi to ensure that tech start-ups and innovators get access to grants and are enabled to access venture capital investments locally and globally,” Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said.

In May 2023, the Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge was introduced in Nairobi with a challenge to tech innovators in the continent to come up with original solutions for particular African challenges.

“From 2015 Mozilla has distributed over $20 million through fellowships and awards to support individual and collective actions that nurture unique innovations that benefit communities”, Said Mitchell Baker, CEO and Chairwoman of Mozilla Corporation.

Over 11,000 Kenyans are employed by 308 active tech start-ups in Kenya, according to the 2022 Kenya Start-Up Ecosystem Report by Disrupt Africa.

Only 50% of these start-ups, the majority of which are in the fintech sector, have undergone any kind of acceleration or incubation, according to the survey.

“Advancing Africa’s Digital Economy is at the heart of ATU’s mandate. We work to create harmonized digital economies through standardized policy and regulatory frameworks for the African Region,” John Omo, the Secretary-General of the African Telecommunication Union (ATU), noted.