Kenya dominates DEMO Africa 40 Finalists

Among the 40 demonstrators to launch at the first-ever DEMO Africa Conference, Kenya has 14 demonstrators closely followed by South Africa who managed to have 11.

The tech launch pad received 500 applications from 16 countries before short-listing 40 finalists this week. They cover 5 categories that include Social Media, Cloud Services, Mobile, Consumer and Enterprise Technologies.

The 40 finalists are headed for Nairobi to launch at an event to be held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) from 24^th to 26^th October. The event will attract Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, investment fund managers, tech buyers, entrepreneurs, innovation supporters & the media.

Here are the Kenyan Finalists:

‘eLimu’ by Nivi Mukherjee

eLimu is an award-winning interactive, engaging and fun application for children in the Kenyan Primary School education system to learn and revise for their exams. We incorporate animations, videos, songs, music, games, and quizzes into the content from a leading local textbook publisher.

The application can be deployed on any Android Smartphone or tablet with 3G or Wireless connectivity in order to facilitate Q&As; with teachers and collaborative learning. In addition, to the content of the 6 subjects, eLimu also contains content outside the national curriculum focused on responsible citizenship and gradually shifting collective behavior towards a more sustainable lifestyle by covering topics such as environmental conservation, civic rights, human rights, community development, agriculture among others.  eLimu hopes to make a significant and positive long term impact on the Kenyan youth by improving their: test scores, cognitive thinking skills, social/environmental consciousness and IT literacy.

‘iPay’ by Philip Nyamwaya

iPay is an innovative payments processing solution and payment gateway for Africa. iPay is an easy-to-use payments processing system that incorporates VISA, MasterCard, Kenswitch, M-PESA, Airtel Money, yuCash.

‘Sasa Africa’ by Ella Peinovich

SasaAfrica is an e-commerce platform that connects craftswomen in developing countries to the global marketplace using simply a mobile phone. SasaAfrica is a social enterprise that connects micro-manufacturers and entrepreneurs to access global markets through our proprietary mobile technology. The technology allows vendors to sell their goods directly to global consumers through their personal mobile phones, despite access to a computer, the internet, & a bank account. Our patent-pending technology leverages existing telecommunications technology and infrastructure to pioneer a completely new marketplace. This new marketplace revolutionizes the way money and goods are exchanged during international trade into a peer-to-peer exchange, creating economic opportunity and increased profits for vendors and savings for consumers.

‘mkazi’ by Nancy Wang

m-KAZI is a mass market job search application accessed by mobile phone and online. It allows jobseekers to register their details and qualifications via SMS and receive SMS job alerts. Employers can in turn target candidates on the m-KAZI database who meet their requirements. There are 25 million mobile phone users in Kenya and m-KAZI can be used by anyone with a basic mobile phone.

‘MPrep Kenya’ by Kosgei Isaac

MPrep helps kids learn, review, compete and collaborate through accessible and fun mobile applications. We also give teachers data about their students and help parents stay informed – all on simple mobile tech. Basically, we make it easy and fun for an educational community to communicate and share information.

‘MyOrder’ by Hilda Moraa

MyOrder is the easy way to order from shops around you for delivery or pick-up. MyOrder helps you find what you want, when you want it, where you want it – on your mobile phone.

‘Hewani Retail’ by Thuo Herbert

Hewani™ Retail will enable consumers to shop for goods and services, pay for them with multiple payment instruments and keep track of delivery of goods via simple mobile or WEB channels and tools.Consumers will have a simple interface available on USSD, Mobile WEB, WEB, Android, Symbian and Windows Apps. Consumers will have a self-care portal to check all past transactions.

Merchants will be setup and enabled to allow consumers to buy goods and services in less than one week and across 6 platforms. Merchants will have a self-care portal where they can add products, prices, branches etc and see orders and payments from customers in real time.

‘Mverified’ by Patrick Innovator

The application is a verification tool that can be accessed online, through WAP or GPRS-enabled phones. It went live three months ago.
It can be used to ascertain the authenticity of documents, certificates, and title deeds.
It works by sharing data with State agencies like the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Kenya National Examinations Council.
The new application will reduce the security threats that accompany business transactions and make it easier for users to make informed and secure financial decisions.
The system is free to download as an Android application and can be accessed online. However, to make a verification enquiry will cost the user Sh600 which is payable through M-Pesa or Airtel Money.

‘mTracker’ by Mwema Jacob

mTRACKER is a menu-driven mobile application that runs on Series40 and Android platforms. mTRACKER enables asset owners; fleet managers, motorists, cargo and laptop owners amongst others, be able to manage the security of their possessions in an easy and user-friendly manner, everywhere from their phones.

For fleet managers and motorists, mTracker provides: alarm alerts where owner’s phone vibrates with an alert in case the vehicles alarm goes-off, real-time location tracking by mapping location of the vehicle on the phone using a pointer, fuel analysis, stoppage points and distance covered, engine on/off where an authenticated user is able to stop the vehicle remotely through the selection of the appropriate menu-item, listen-in, SOS alerts, geo-fencing and over-speed alerts. Cargo and laptop owners are able to visually track the location of their assets real-time, on the phone.

‘Crowdpesa’ by Christian Kakoba

For merchants who need to attract and maintain loyal customers, Crowdpesa is a platform as a service that allows merchants to manage customer notifications and rewards on an intuitive dashboard. Unlike our competitors, we allow merchants to target the right customer with the right offer by leveraging on location.

‘Lipisha’ by Martin Kasomo

Targeted at small and medium enterprises, Lipisha enables small business owners to automatically process non-cash payments and micropayments such as mobile money e.g. Mpesa or Equity 247, airtime via short codes and card payments e.g. VISA or MasterCard directly to their bank accounts.

‘MPayer’ by Stella Njoki

MPAYER is a mobile and web application that enables businesses to manage income and expense transactions of the business both Mobile Money (Mpesa, Airtel Money) as well as cash. It also helps businesses keep track of customers, distinguish their different payments and generate reports on a real time basis through a mobile phone/ computer.

 Think of MPAYER as a tool that helps businesses to view their performance through a mobile phone or computer. This tool helps owners of business to manage and view activities of business including incomes and expenses, performance of various product/services and manages customer information.

‘Kytabu’ by Tonee Ndungu

Kytabu is a texbook subscription application on a low cost tablet that allows users to rent books on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and annual timeline on a mobile platform payment plan. Kytabu allows primary and high school students in Kenya to access all the textbooks in the Kenyan Education Curriculum as digital learning material without having to download them on a broadband network. The books all come pre-installed in the subsidized tablet that they can then use to lease the books directly from the tablet, without a mobile network gateway. The entire transaction is done on the tablet. Our target cost of the tablet is Sh1000.

‘Dash2go’ by Samuel Wanjohi

Dash2go is an online service network platform that enables individuals and businesses get services conveniently, from either a computer or mobile phone. We provide errand runners, private drivers, cash delivery, travel bookings, luggage storage, luggage shipping, and mobile phone tracking. Mobile phone tracking is an online service that our users access online and use. All the others services are physical so our platform enable users to make a booking and the service is then delivered in the physical sense.

Here are the other finalists:

‘Kuza Mobile’ by Pieter Nel (South Africa), ‘Evly’ by Eric Edelstein (South Africa), ‘Gigham’ by George Gally (South Africa), ‘KKYB Productions’ by Kekeli Buckner (Ghana), ‘TaxTim ’ by Evan Robinson (South Africa), ‘Maliyo Games’ by Hugo Obi (Nigeria), ‘ProWork’ by Francis Onwumere (Nigeria), ‘Firestring’ by Alison Jacobson (South Africa), ‘Kuzima’ by Michael Ocansey (Ghana), ‘mPawa’ by Maxwell Donkor (Ghana), ‘MTI Support App’ by Sean Venter (South Africa), ‘MobiFlock’ by Vanessa Clark (South Africa), ‘OzinboPay’ by Sam Paapa Opoku (Ghana), ‘Djoss.tv’ by Ndjientcheu Ngandjui Patrick (Cameroon), ‘Qabila Media Productions’ by Perihan Abou-Zeid (Egypt), ‘Eskimi’ by Vytautas Paukštys (Nigeria), ‘ExpenZa’ by Wim Morris (South Africa), ‘Meka’ by Mugume Collins (Uganda), ‘SkillPod Media’ by Mark van Diggelen (South Africa), ‘People Input’ by Serigne Barro (Senegal), ‘Framework One’ by Stephan Pienaar (South Africa), ‘Kivuko’ by Amiri Mziray (Tanzania), ‘Mlouma’ by Aboubacar Sidy Sonko (Senegal), ‘Rasello’ by Natalino Mwenda (Tanzania),‘Balefyre’ by Earl Joseph (South Africa) and ‘Virtual Bank’ by Tawanda Kembo (Zimbabwe).  

Adapted from Demo-Africa.com