Pivot East announces its 2015 semi-finalists

The competition opened the call for applications in April 2015 with startups from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia applying through an online portal (startups.pivoteast.com). This year also saw startups from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Israel applying to join the competition.

The criteria used by the judges helped to evaluate the startups' purported customer pain, opportunity and customer segments, the solution and its fit to the problem, the revenue model, and analysis of the competitive landscape. Other selection criteria items helped to evaluate the calibre of the team and the startups' focus to grow into sustainable enterprises. These included the team composition and commitment, current market traction, and projections for milestones and key metrics.

PIVOT East aims at facilitating discovery and nurturing of the next wave of high potential mobile innovations into sustainable businesses. It is more than a competition - its a holistic platform for mobile startups organisational development and business model refinement. The competition is organised by m:lab East Africa - a consortium comprising iHub, eMobilis and University of Nairobi. This year's finalists conference will be held on 22 July in Nairobi, Kenya. The venue will be communicated at a later date.

The competition, in its fifth edition this year, will have some significant changes in the structure and the focus of the event. When PIVOT started in 2011, it was an app developer competition. It has since grown to a startups pitching event, with an aim of exposing East Africa startups to Investors, corporates, researcher, development agency and the public. The event also provides startups with a platform to meet, share and network with fellow East Africa entrepreneurs. The event's prize money structure has evolved over the years from grants, to grant and investment. This year the competition will emphasize for competitors to persuade active investors to provide funding.