6 Kenyan startups chosen to pitch at Nairobi Innovation Week

Six Kenyan startups have been chosen to pitch to potential investors and partners at Nairobi Innovation Week.

Disrupt Africa reported in March applications had opened for the NIW.Startups programme at the annual Nairobi Innovation Week, which offers Kenyan businesses the chance to showcase their solutions at the event.

Thirty startups were selected to pitch to a panel of judges, with six overall winners named “Kenya’s Most Promising Startups of 2019”. These companies will now have the opportunity to pitch during the Innovation Summit on June 13-14 at the University of Nairobi.

They will also be awarded an entrepreneurship training scholarship from a leading training institution, and be provided with a free exhibition booth for the duration of Nairobi Innovation Week.

The winning startups include agri-tech startup Arinifu, which has developed an environmental control device that ensures chicken farmers are able to keep conditions in their brooding spaces at optimal levels, and Bentos Energy, which recycles waste biomass into affordable smokeless charcoal briquettes and organic fertiliser.

Also selected to pitch are BioAfriq Energy, which fabricates pellet-fired dehydrators for drying farm produce; Green Pavers, which provides affordable, efficient and environmentally friendly building hardware made from recycled waste plastic; Kencoco, which makes and sells charcoal briquettes from recycled agricultural coconut waste and charcoal dust; and Silmak Agencies, which manufactures end-to-end menstrual hygiene products.