Ten Startups Battle For Pitching Spot At #StartupSouth '16

Ten startups operating in agro-alied, fin-tech, ecommerce, edutech, energy, fashion and entertainment sectors of the economy and drawn from five States in the South-South part of the country are currently engaged in fierce battle to be among four to present at the grand finale.

Startupsouth is Nigeria's premier Startup Conference focusing on founders mainly in the South-South and South-East of the country.

It's main objectives is to educate, expose and possibly attract funding to ventures in the states that make up these geo-political regions.

Speaking on why the event is tagged StartupSouth Uche Aniche, founder of Havilah & Hills a Port Harcourt based Web Development and Marketing Communications strategy said, “Well, because Lagos already have all the exposure and in fact is believed (rightly so) as the main startup hub in Nigeria. Some even think it's the only one and it's to help this second category of people that #StartupSouth was instituted. Another reason is to encourage local HNIs to lead the way in investing in early stage ventures as a tool to reduce youth related vices”.

Application, Selection & Training
“We had a total of 24 Startups apply to Pitch at #StartupSouth2. 10 of them will receive virtual and physical training by Uchey Ariolu (of Foodstantly.com) & others. At the end of the training ending with a mock pitch, 4 will be selected to pitch at #StartupSouth2. Each of them will get a free pass to the networking Dinner  and possibly investments,” he said.

The Criteria
With the exception of one, it's important to note they are all early stage startups. Hence criteria used are:

Social Media Presence: The thinking here was to demonstrate founders ability to utilize free resources for promotion.

Market Size: Is there enough potential users or custoners for the solution?

Scalability: How difficult/easy can it get to scale the idea.

Innovation: How innovative is the idea? Can it be replicated easily?

Relevance: How relevant is the solution both now and into the future.

Team: How compact and skilled the team is and their ability to progress solution to a more investible stage.

Traction: What level of progress has the team achieved on the solution so far? Product dev, user signups, Revenue.

The Breakdown
Organisers of the event which holds on November 10 in Port Harcourt, said they received applications from Startups in five States namely - Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Delta and Bayelsa. Our eventual goal is to cover 11States.

“We received entry from Startups operating in Agro-Alied, Fin-Tech, eCommerce, Edutech, Energy, Fashion and Entertainment”.

Aniche also confirmed the following startups have been shortlisted to progress to the next phase: wattclass (www.wattclass.com) - An online learning platform that enable to tutors and students get value for their time and money respectively, it’s like the Nigerian Coursera; Dresnice (www.dresnice.com) - Online Tailoring Shop that allows you to order and select designs and get it them made and delivered to you; Studacom (www.Studacom.ng)  - Online off-campus student hostel booking and roommate finding platform; Notify - Smart school solution that automates test/exams with integrated schools fees collection and reconciliation feature.

Others are Ioumoney (www.ioumoney.com.ng) - Online directory for loan providers in Nigeria; Piston Spark - Producers of organic Solar Cell for electricity generation by recycling waste lead from lead acid accumulator batteries used in cars; Payconnect (www.payconnect.ng) - Online Lending portal for the un-banked. Allows for quick loan application; Mabiri (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mabiri.store) - find and buy item from local stores/retailers near you. Helping to bring more street corner shops online for the growing population of Smartphone wielding shoppers; MusicCloud (www.musiccloud.com.ng.) - Online streaming portal that connects unsigned artistes to their fans. Gives them dedicated pages that allow fans to discover and follow their up and coming stars just like Reverbnation

Garden Groceries (No Website Yet) - An online grocery store that delivers fresh ORGANIC farm produce and products to corporate buyers using an ordering app and delivery support, has also progressed to the next stage.