The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has announced the top ten start-ups to proceed to the Demo Day stage of the $200,000 NPI 2.0 competition.
The top 10 innovators were shortlisted after a week-long accelerator programme (physical bootcamp) that culminated in the recently concluded mini demo day, where 25 innovators pitched their solutions before an expert panel of business and technology leaders.
According to the NSIA management, the shortlisted businesses are drawn from multiple sectors of the economy emerged from evaluations based on key parameters like scalability, product-to-market fit, financial projections, unique value proposition, competitor analysis and targeted market size among others.
Specifically, it listed the innovators shortlisted as Yalo Technologies, BetaLife Health, Magic Carpet Studios, MaterialsPro, Doktorconnect, PaveHQ, VPay Africa, TribaPay, Kunda Kids and Sycamore.
The innovators will vie for a combined prize value of US$220,000 on Demo Day and participate in a five-week, all-expense paid training at Draper University, Silicon Valley USA.
While commenting on this development, the Managing Director/CEO of the Authority, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, expressed his delight at the growing acceptance of the NPI programme in the Nigerian technology ecosystem.
He said: “he Authority recognises the pivotal role that technology plays to propel positive socio-economic outcomes, hence our commitment to expand the development of this sector. Through the NPI, we remain focused on advancing innovative solutions to domestic challenges, capacity building for early-stage businesses and economic empowerment through job creation”.
The NPI is the Authority’s strategic initiative to identify, nurture and build early-stage businesses for transformative impact.
Now in its second year, it has rapidly gained acceptance within the technology and start-up ecosystem as more credible and eligible Nigerian innovators shown significant interest in it. The call for application stage in the first quarter of the year, had over 7,000 applications. This was pruned down to 100 businesses at virtual accelerator stage and further reduced to 26 businesses for the physical bootcamp.
25 businesses progressed to the mini demo day out of which the top ten innovators have emerged
The four-stage competition is focused on enhancing the Nigerian technology ecosystem and aligns with the Authority’s mandate to catalyze Nigeria’s economic development.
