Nailab held a Demo day where 6 ICT start-ups launched their products into the market. Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Dr. Fred Matiangi officiated the event as young entrepreneurs unveiled their innovations that will revolutionize our approach to business, governance and social enterprise as well as community and entertainment.
The 6 ICT start-ups were admitted to the Nailab incubation in November 2013 under a partnership with the ICT Authority. The authority extended a funding of 1.7million dollars (Kshs. 144.5 million) which was secured through World Bank.
The Demo day was all about the start-ups showcasing their solutions to policy agencies in government, to market partners, target consumers and customers, investors and possible growth partners for their graduating entities. They got a chance to present, pitch and demonstrate how their solutions work to those in attendance.
Here is a look at the start-ups and their different pitches.
Duma Works
DUMA works is a career builder and job matching app via mobile. Their dream is to be the best job matching system. Employers use the network to identify top job candidates in their sector. Job seekers use the platform to search for jobs and also get a chance to develop their skills and a career direction.
DUMA works currently has 6,500 users and a more than 50% job match rate. The great thing about it is that you don’t have to have internet connection to use it. You can sign up via mobile phone. It has a 3 hour time limit notification period to respond to a job match.
Using Duma Works requires you to pay upfront, but they have a full refund policy in case things don’t work out. You either get your money back or a full replacement within 5working days
Clad Light is a start-up that presents a solution to increase visibility for motor bikes users day or night. This is achieved through wearable electronics on the ordinary reflective jacket require to be worn by every motorcycle rider. The initiative was founded by two brothers; Charles and Joseph Muchene. The idea came up due to the steep rise in deaths as a result of road accidents involving bodaboda operators.
They chose to demo their product with a motorbike on stage. They have already patented their product and will be working to spread the invention across the border to Uganda and possibly all of Africa.
Keja Hunt is an online property-listing platform using geo-location technology that focuses on helping home seekers get a house to settle in and get the landlords a tenant to fill their vacant houses.
Keja Hunt ahs a roommate feature that is sourced form your social media pages. tHey match you up with people you have friends in common with for safety purposes
Go Kibali is a system to enable users to apply for licenses and permits on-line from the comfort of their home, office or nearest computer. Users register and apply for their permit, which is received by the sub county. The users receive notifications via sms and email and are always informed of the progress of their application
SokoText is a social enterprise that operates in the slums of Nairobi. SokoText works with Mama Mbogas (small vegetable sellers) who supply majority of the fresh food consumed by the residents of the slums. Mama Mbogas spend a lot of time and money daily to get their stocks. They aim to solve this problem and make the system more efficient. SokoText does this using pre-order, aggregation and distribution based SMS based system.
Mama mbogas send in their requests in the evening, they are picked oeverninght, and by morning, their deliveries are made. All it take sis a simple message. As it stands, Soko Text has already handled 130 orders and has a more than 70% success rate in terms of orders being picked.
Swap Kitabu is a web and mobile-based service that is aimed at helping ease the acquisition of reading material to the lower income earner. It’s also a solution that is connecting those who want to sell their books with those that are looking for the books.
GigWapi
Gigwapi Events was founded as an event listing platform connecting event organizers to event goers while matching users to relevant events. They have developed exciting solutions that will make events planning a more than pay-to-go-to affair for the organizers and the patrons based on technology.