Nairobi, Kenya – Latitude59 Kenya’s Pitch Competition has broken records, with a total of 382 applications from 37 countries. Now, the top ten have been selected to compete for an invitation to Latitude59 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia, where they’ll have the chance to win a prize pool of one million euros.
The number of applications for Latitude59’s Pitch Competition in Kenya has nearly doubled, with a strong representation from African nations like Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. Additionally, an impressive array of applicants came from other regions, including from countries like the UAE, India, and Azerbaijan, highlighting the competition’s growing international appeal.
The competition’s top ten startups will have the opportunity to pitch live on the main stage at Latitude59 in Nairobi on 28 November. They will also receive personalised pitch training from Latitude59 Pitch Coach Gleb Maltsev. One African startup will receive a fast-track invitation to Latitude59 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia, where it will participate in the pre-finals. For two years in a row, the prize pool for the Latitude59 Pitch Competition in Estonia has been one million euros. Also, Latitude59 will cover the cost of the roundtrip to Estonia.
Thank you to our partners who helped with the startup evaluations and in selecting the top 10%: Diligence Africa, Nairobi Business Angels Network, Cloudplexo, Lemonade Stand VC, Tehnopol, and Tech Safari.
Partners contributing to the prize pool of L59 Pitch Competition in Kenya: Infobip ($20,000 in service credits), Adoptomedia (“Go-to-market” workshop) and Cloudplexo ($200,000 in AWS credits). “Nairobi and Africa, in general, are buzzing with entrepreneurial energy, leveraging technology to address critical challenges. The innovation, resilience, and global ambition of these startups inspire us to invest in their success. Supporting the L59 Pitch Competition aligns with our mission to foster innovation by equipping startups with the tools and resources needed to succeed in dynamic markets like Kenya,” said Spiff Moses, the Head Marketing Officer at Cloudplexo.
🎉 The Top 10 Finalists in 2024 🎉
The TOP 10 teams taking the stage at the finals at Latitude59 Kenya Edition 2024 (in alphabetical order) are:
- 🇳🇬AcemyX: AcemyX is an LMS helping students prepare for exams with personalized learning tools and study materials.
- 🇹🇿Afya Mama: Afya Mama is providing answers to questions pertaining maternal care and reproductive health to women via SMS and web app.
- 🇰🇪 Eco Nasi: Eco Nasi Limited transforms pineapple pulp waste into high-quality vegan leather that is 5 times more durable than hide leather.
- 🇰🇪 Grekkon Limited: Grekkon is scaling up moisture sensors for smallholder farmers to remove water wastage or insufficient water in irrigation.
- 🇰🇪 NoMa: NoMa is a tech platform that digitizes school transportation.
- 🇺🇸 Paycloud Africa: Paycloud is building a Neobank to help MSMEs in Africa to pay, get paid, and access credit through payment aggregation.
- 🇰🇪 Roadrims: Roadrims provides reliable, efficient, and cost-effective logistics that meets diverse supply chain needs.
- 🇰🇪 Twiva: Twiva is a Social Commerce platform that helps brands gain access to markets by marketing & selling through influencers.
- 🇰🇪 VunaPay: VunaPay provides instant payments to farmers as they deliver their produce, saving them from delayed payments.
- 🇰🇪 Zerobionic: Zerobionic is developing a human-like robotic arm to help students with hearing impairments in Kenyan high schools.
The Shortlisted Startups in 2024
In addition, we highlight the following shortlisted startups (in alphabetical order) who will gain access to startup workshops:
- 🇰🇪 Agri Business Solutions Limited: Agri Business Solutions Limited reduces post-harvest losses in the avocado value chain using zero-waste circular economy model and blockchain.
- 🇰🇪 B.T.T.L: Biofranca Trans Technology Limited is developing anaerobic digesters to help schools, institutions, and slum communities.
- 🇰🇪 Bankwise Insights: Bankwise Insights is developing an AI-powered credit risk assessment tool to help financial institutions in emerging markets.
- 🇰🇪 Beba-Beggie: Beba-Beggie develops an IoT automated locker technology offering affordable, accessible, secure and convenient short-term storage for items.
- 🇳🇬 Betapawa Solutions Limited: Betapawa is developing IoT-enabled solar mini-grids and productive-use solutions targeting underserved communities in Africa.
- 🇰🇪 Book Clothes: Book Clothes is developing a rental wardrobe platform to help travelers and fashion enthusiasts access wardrobes.
- 🇺🇸 Bunce: Bunce is an AI-powered customer engagement platform that grows revenue and retention for companies.
- 🇹🇿 Climate Smart Irrigator: Climate Smart Irrigator develops an irrigation system designed to optimize water use for farming, helping smallholder farmers adapt to unpredictable climate.
- 🇹🇬 Clinicaa: Clinicaa is an IT solution for hospital management.
- 🇰🇪 Constantnople Enterprise: Constantnople Enterprise is developing an AI-powered HDPE fish cage system to help fish farmers optimize aquaculture operations.
- 🇷🇼 Digital Realm Entertainment Inc: Digital Realm Entertainment is an interactive entertainment tech and software company developing African-oriented interactive experiences & games.
- 🇰🇪 DigiTax: DigiTax makes it easy for businesses to be tax compliant, save time and unnecessary hardware.
- 🇺🇬 Diwala AS: Diwala is a digital platform that makes it effortless to issue, hold, and verify any credential in the world.
- 🇰🇪 Duhqa: Duhqa is a B2B supply chain & distribution tech platform making it easier for mom and Pop shops to procure inventory.
- 🇰🇪 Ebikes Africa: Ebikes Africa is improving mobility, logistics and access to financial services in Africa using electric bicycles and AI.
- 🇺🇸 Hodhi: Hodhi is developing a Pan-African exchange to help low income Africans affordably buy and sell real estate across Africa.
- 🇳🇬 JobRoutes: JobRoutes helps tech talents across Africa to access the best job opportunities that exist beyond borders using AI.
- 🇳🇬 Kitovu: Kitovu builds agritech infrastructure to enable African smallholder farmers to boost productivity using data science.
- 🇰🇪 Klinik Telehealth: Klinik is a telehealth platform that enables patients Access Healthcare Services conveniently and cost effectively.
- 🇺🇬 Lupiiya Books: Lupiiya Books is developing a gamified social finance app that enables young African entrepreneurs leverage their social capital to fundraise.
- 🇰🇪 Mizan Money: Mizan is developing the first Islamic neobank and BNPL, to cater for 5 million muslims in Kenya using 10,000 data points.
- 🇳🇬 OneClick-Med: OneClick-Med is a health tech centralizing patient data management for easy, safe, and efficient healthcare experiences.
- 🇨🇩 Owanga: Owanga provides pay-per-use battery solutions in Congo, offering stackable power for $2 a day or for purchase at $200.
- 🇳🇬 Pocketfood: Pocketfood is automating healthy eating for busy professionals in Africa.
- 🇺🇬 Protein Kapital Limited: Protein Kapital is developing alternative proteins and fertilizers as production inputs from food waste using insects.
- 🇺🇬 RentBeta: RentBeta aligns Rent payments with real world cash flow for renters & create more stable ontime collections for landlords.
- 🇹🇬 SEMOA: SEMOA helps Banks to innovate in communication and transactions through WhatsApp Banking and payments solutions.
- 🇰🇪 Skizaa AI: Skizaa lets businesses easily connect all their data sources and get instant business insights through a simple chat interface.
- 🇳🇬 SpeedPay: SpeedPay operates a comprehensive B2B & B2C system that specializes in creating bank-at-a-go for SMEs, services, and consumers.
- 🇳🇬 Yournotify: Yournotify is a multi channel marketing platform for customer communications and engagement.
About Estonia
Estonia is home to the highest concentration of unicorns in Europe, boasting 865 startups per 1M people. For years, Estonia has been a role model in the global tech scene. Many Estonian startups, such as Bolt, Admiral Markets, and Yaga, are already active in Africa.
About Latitude59
Latitude59 is the flagship startup and tech event of the world’s first digital nation, Estonia. Latitude59 is the most international, impactful, and diverse startup and technology conference in the Baltic States and New Nordics. The 12th edition, held in Tallinn, Estonia in May, attracted over 3,500 attendees, including more than 900 startup representatives and nearly 600 investors. The event featured 195 speakers, 40% of whom were women. In total, participants came from 65 countries worldwide. As a global platform connecting startups, investors, and key players worldwide Latitude59 will connect the Estonian and Kenya startup ecosystems and introduce them globally.
About Latitude59 Kenya Edition 2024
The finals of Latitude59 Kenya Edition 2024 will take place on Thursday, November 28, from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM at the A.S.K Dome in Nairobi. This will be the second satellite event organized by Latitude59 in Nairobi. Last year’s event, held in December, attracted nearly 800 participants from Africa and around the world. This year they are expecting 2000 participants to attend.
More info about #Latitude59xKenya 2024 is available here. To witness the finals of L59 Pitch Competition in Kenya in person, claim a ticket and join the show:
