iHub is pleased to announce the twenty seven digital startups who will participate in the iHub scale-up accelerator program, Traction Camp cohort 2. After a thorough and competitive selection process, involving application evaluation, personal interviews by a panel of program advisors, 27 startup have been selected for the six-month business acceleration program. The program will see the startups receive mentoring from global and local experts, learn through a tailor-made curriculum, increase…

Kenyan startup Taimba, which connects farmers to retailers, was won of three winners of the 2018 Food+City Challenge Prize at the recent SXSW event, taking home US$10,000 in prize money. The Food+City Challenge Prize is an international competition among business startups encouraging innovation in the urban food system, which was this year part of the SXSW programming for the first time. After receiving almost 100 applications from 14 countries, 14 startup finalists were invited…

US impact investor Gray Matters Capital has invested $100 000 in Nairobi-based B2B agritech startup Taimba. Gray Matters Capital said in a statement today that the investment was made through its gender lens early-stage fund GMC coLabs. Taimba has developed a mobile-based platform that connects rural small scale farmers to urban retailers, restaurants, hospitals and schools in Nairobi. By doing so, Taimba effectively removes middlemen, shrinks the agricultural value chain, cuts wastage and makes…

Kenyan incubator Nailab has announced the 15 startups that will take part in its Make-IT accelerator programme, designed to strengthen entrepreneurs’ skills for scaling their businesses. The Make-IT accelerator begins this month and is implemented by the German International Cooperation (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as part of BMZ’s Digital Africa Initiative. It is designed to strengthen entrepreneurs’ skills for scaling their innovation…

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] If the 2018 Food+City Challenge Prize entrants are any indication, we’re well on the way toward improving our food system. Four years into our competition for food supply chain startups (read about all four years’ of finalists), we’ve noticed some interesting trends, including changes in the way entrepreneurs think about innovation. Progress is apparent despite food regulations, a lack of consistent data standards and the companies’ need to achieve scale while…

Kenyan agri-tech startup Taimba was named the winner of the inaugural Disrupt Africa Live Pitch Competition in Nairobi today, winning a number of prizes. The Live Pitch Competition, the first of its kind to be launched by Disrupt Africa, took place at the East Africa Com event in Nairobi, with eight startups pitching to take part. These startups pitched their products and solutions to a judging panel formed of Stephen Gugu,…

The fourth annual Food+City Prize competition will be at SXSW for the first time! Applicants from five continents and 14 countries were ranked by our esteemed group of advisors, judges and mentors, and the top 15 were chosen as finalists. They represent a diverse range of logistical solutions, and stages of development. From Puerto Rico to Africa, idea-stage to scale-stage, these 15 supply chain startups will pitch at SXSW in March…

Joan Kavuisya, 35, tells Shirley Genga how she used her technology experience and education to help farmers get a better deal for their produce MY BACKGROUND I have a Bachelors degree in Business Information Technology and a Masters in project management. Also, I am a certified project management practitioner and business analyst. I worked in the USA for 5 years in technology companies before returning home and joining the banking…