The South African subsidiary of Barclays, Barclays Africa has today unveiled the names of the startups that qualified for the bank’s Supply Chain Challenge finals. Innov8tiv has listed the names of these startups in no particular orders as follows:
1) Farm Input Authentication (Kenya) – This is an information system that enables users to verify and track transactions made in the agricultural sector in Kenya.
2) Market Opportunity (Kenya) – An e-commerce platform that takes a social network approach to connecting sellers and buyers.
3) Eni Freshmart (Nigeria) – An e-commerce platform that doubles up as an online retailer and shopping mall.
4) Catch Counterfeits (Kenya) – An innovative anti-counterfeit sytem that wants to disrupt the counterfeit pharmaceutical market by blocking supply of counterfeit products.
5) Solutech Limited (Kenya) – A mobile app that provides tracking solution for merchandising, distribution and sales.
Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge
The above five startups will go on fierec competiton against each other before a panel made up of influential judges that will include top Barclays executives from all over the continent. The startups will have a chance to pitch their products, and the most promising startup will chosen from the bunch and become the Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge winner. The 1st place winner will walk home with $10,000 cash prize and a six months mentorship program by the bank.
Judges at Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge Finals
*Ashley Veasey – CIO of Barclays Africa
*Teju Ajani – Regional content partnerships lead for YouTube in sub-Saharan Africa
*Erik Hersman – CEO of Brck and co-Founder of iHub and Ushahidi.
*Andrew Baker – CIO for Corporate, Investment Banking and Payments at Barclays Africa
*Ian Merrington – CEO of the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) and the Bandwidth Barn
The final pitch event will take place on November 3rd, 2015 at the Bandwidth Barn, in Cape Town, South Africa. The venue is a great ICT business incubator in Cape Town.
The Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge is a competition organized by Barclays Africa in partnership with Rise; an organization geared towards pioneering revolutionary financial services on the continent. Rise seeks to empower young innovators all over Africa by nurturing ideas in them that will improve the supply chain; with the intention of making the journey of how the product travel from the manufacturer to the consumer more transparent.