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Kenyan startups will have the opportunity to apply to be one of 100 pitching at the latest Nairobi Innovation Week in March after the organisers partnered with a host of hubs and ecosystem players.

The Nairobi Innovation Week is an annual event convened by the University of Nairobi, with the fourth edition taking place in March and expecting more than 4,000 delegates.

The theme of this year’s event is “Innovating for a better tomorrow”, with startups to be the mainstream focus of the event for the first time. The Nairobi Innovation Week organising committee has therefore partnered with various startup enablers within the ecosystem to select startups to pitch.

These partners include UNICEF, Villgro Kenya, Swahilipot Hub, iHub, Metta, iBizAfrica, Viktoria Ventures, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

“We are delighted to share our collaborative platform with serious players in the regional and international startup ecosystem. We are hopeful that NIW.Startups is a springboard for increased collaboration among the many organisations involved,” said Dr Tonny Omwansa, chairperson of the Nairobi Innovation Week Planning Committee.

iBizAfrica was instrumental during the 2017 event, with incubator manager Bernard Chiira saying the accelerator had seen the value in such partnerships first hand.

“iBizAfrica, Strathmore University has been an active participant in the Nairobi Innovation Week for the past two editions. I have witnessed Nairobi Innovation Week grow to become one of Kenya’s fastest growing platforms for startup support and funding, showcasing Kenya’s most innovative startups and driving collaboration and growth of the startup ecosystem in Kenya,” he said.

“This year I expect NIW to attract Kenya’s most innovative startups at all levels from seed to scale-ups. I am very optimistic that NIW will leave a mark as the go to conference for startups, investors and innovators in Africa.”

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