You are here Home » Events » Event Articles » SV Hospitality Innovation Lab launches in Nigeria | Application Deadline July 3rd

SV Hospitality Innovation Lab launches in Nigeria | Application Deadline July 3rd

by Milicent Atieno
SV Hospitality Innovation Lab shil

SV Hospitality Innovation Lab (SHIL), has launched in Nigeria with the aim of providing a test bed and community to support innovators within the country’s hospitality industry. The lab has been set up at the SV Chrome hotels in Jabi, Abuja and is being run in partnership with Nigeria’s leading innovation hub, Co-Creation Hub (CcHub).

SHIL works by providing a four-months-long prototyping program geared at supporting innovators and transforming their ideas into working products. SHIL then goes the extra mile of sourcing for the market for the products developed by innovators in its program. The lab also doubles up as a co-working space for entrepreneurs, freelancers, students, technologies, and innovators around Abuja.

Startups that successfully go through the SHIL program will have to give up seven percent of their equity in exchange for the acceleration and support they get. They will also each get one of the 45 rooms at the SV Chrome Hotels, where they can better display their prototypes to customers. The most promising startups will also bag $5,000 from the CcHub alongside some industry insights from experienced experts from the SV Chrome Hotel’s parent company, IMPACTO Group.

On top of the cash prize, and access to the co-working space, the leading startup will get $3,000 worth of AWS Credits in addition to product credits from Zendesk and Hubspot. The most promising startup will also get accelerated access to CcHub’s incubation program and a chance to walk home with $25,000 funding and the opportunity to secure an additional $250,000 funding from CcHub’s Growth Capital fund.

Innovators wishing to take part in this program must have a minimum viable product (MVP) or innovative ideas addressing challenges facing the hospitality industry. Such startups must have a full-time founder and at least one technical person on its team. The startups must also hail from within Abuja; if not, they must be willing to relocate there.

We have observed that innovators creating solutions for the hospitality industry in Nigeria typically build in isolation from the hotels and guests who are the end-users of the solution. We want to provide these teams with the access to hotel infrastructure, customers, and other resources needed to build solutions that solve a clear problems for hotels and their guests,” reads in parts, a statement from SHIL to a section of the media.

Innovators in the hospitality industry can apply between now and July 3rd, and the final selection will happen on July 7th. The main program will embark on July 23rd.

You may also like