Eight startup businesses have been announced as winners of the Gitex Pitch Competition, a Lagos Roadshow edition, which was held last Friday.
The organizers of the roadshow event listed the winners as Pocket Food; Fuspay Technologies; Byte; Africa Comicade, Get Equity; Alajo; Instant Rad and Dataleum.
According to them, the Lagos State Government, in partnership with Eko Innovation Centre will be sponsoring the startups on an all-expense paid session to Morocco and Dubai for the Gitex Supernova Pitch Competition, where the entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas and compete on a global scale before fund managers and investors.
Speaking on the competition, Special Adviser on Innovation and Technology to Lagos State Governor, Mr. Olatunbosun Alake, restated the state government’s commitment to partnering with the Dubai World Trade Centre, organizers of Gitex Global, to provide the platform for young companies or small businesses to become global companies and operate on a global scale.
He explained: “It is an opportunity for Lagos startups to showcase their ingenuity across a global audience, as it helps to validate their products and services, puts them in front of other competitors as well as exposure for investment opportunities to Nigeria.”
The governor’s aide further said that the entrepreneurs provided economic value through the Gitex platform as it puts them in front of investors sponsored by the Lagos State Government.
In his remarks, the Founder, Eko Innovation Centre, Mr. Victor Afolabi, said that the initiative created a platform to deepen the entrepreneurial ecosystem as well as reduce unemployment in Lagos state and Nigeria.
Afolabi expatiated: “With Gitex, we expect the entrepreneurs to get partnerships and collaborations to commercialize their businesses, and grow their market share in order to help assuage the economic challenges and eradicate the high rate of poverty prevalent in the country.”
He lauded the Lagos State Government for being futuristic and friendly in its approach to expanding the frontiers of entrepreneurship by driving the innovation ecosystem in Nigeria.
One of the winners, who is also the Founder of Africa Comicade, a platform for African digital creative in gaming, animation, comics, and XR, connecting them to opportunities for learning, jobs, collaboration and funding, Mr. Oscar Michael, said that the win by his company in the competition was transformational, as it provided him the opportunity and platform to showcase Nigeria as the gaming hub in Africa.
He enthused: “This is a good validation and I look forward to making Nigeria the hub for gaming in Africa.”
The Lagos Roadshow Event recorded over 130 entries for the pitch competition. The best 30 were shortlisted to pitch and 8 startups eventually emerged as winners.
Gitex is an acronym for Gulf Information Technology Exhibition. It is an annual global tech show, organized by, and taking place at, the Dubai World Trade Centre in the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest gathering of entrepreneurs all over the world, a global platform with the best collaborators, mentors and innovators giving opportunities for visibility and funding.
The 42nd edition which was held in October 2022 had more than 5,000 companies that participated and over 170,000 attendees from 176 countries.
