Ten young entrepreneurs from across Universities in the country have emerged as finalists at the Wema Bank’s Hackholics 4.0 Pre-Pitch on Thursday.
These finalists will be competing for over N50,000,000 cash prize in the grand finale of the Hackaholics Digital Summit, today, Friday, October 6, 2023, in Lagos.
With the theme, “Reimagine: Disrupting the Ecosystem for Scale”, contestants pitched compelling creative ideas for impactful solutions that would ease struggles across 10 different areas of human life: Education, Climate, GovTech, Health, Gender-based Violence, Financial Inclusion, Entertainment, Fintech, Insurance and CivicTech.
The 10 finalists are Jane Agbaohwo for Team Ireti; Nelson Nelson-Atuonwu for Team Grip; Ebulue Ifeanyichukwu Henry for Team Raptor; Bonojo Adedayo for Team Pup Industries; Olukayode Fadairo for Team MumAlive, David Campbell for Team Naija Box; Oluwatimilehin Ogunme for Team Trakka; Tochukwu Ifeanyi for Team Outsidee; Damilare Ololade for University x and Gift Akobundu for Chao.
Speaking at the Pre-Pitch, Solomon Ayodele, Head, Innovation and Emerging Technologies, Wema Bank noted that the finalists were shortlisted from over 3,000 applications from students from universities across the country.
Ayodele explained that the essence of Pre-Pitch, which saw 10 emerge from 25 finalists was to help the finalists refine their pitches through rigorous training as the bank aims to bring out the best for the Grand Finale.
According to him, over 50 million naira cash prize would be distributed across 5 categories. The winner of the Hackaholic gets N15,000,000, 1st runner-up gets N10,000,000, 2nd runner-up gets N7,000,000, while N5,000,000 is reserved for any female-led team to encourage more women to key into tech, while N22,000,000 is disbursed in University Stem endowments.
Femi Awoniyi, Startup Fund Manager at Google stated that the innovations provided by the contestants were amazing as they profer solutions, while noting that the Hackholic summit, apart from giving much needed capital to the winners, would serve as catalyst for others to come out with their own innovations.
Awoniyi, a member of the panel of Judges at the Pre-Pitch noted that the contestants will be judged based on numbers of criteria, ranging from the strength of the team, how sound business model, and the propensity for scale, among others.
Another Judge, Rosemond Phil-Odhihiwa, a Startup Attorney and Corporate Consultant noted that one of the key things that the panel very particular about was innovation as the theme of the Hackaholic portray. “So, we’re looking for viability, innovation and capacity to scale,” she said.
Hackaholics is Wema Bank’s youth & start-up-focused initiative designed to provide a platform for young innovators with game-changing, tech-driven ideas and products, to bring their creative ideas to life, hone their skills and gain a competitive edge in the global technology and digital space. Since its launch in 2019, Hackaholics has toured the six geo-political zones in Nigeria including 37 universities across Africa, sourcing creative undergraduate students, youth and start-ups, challenging them to innovate and create practical solutions to real-life problems, using technology.
. TheWitness
