By Murugi Ndwiga
Startups have been advised to take advantage of opportunities provided by Major Companies in the Country like Safaricom in order to maximize their value.
Speaking during the Spark Accelerator Investor Demo day held on Friday, at Safaricom Headquarters in Westlands, Nairobi, several startups had the opportunity to showcase their innovations where most startups requested for more funding.
While demonstrating his innovation, CEO and Founder of Chumz Samson Njuguna, demonstrated how the Chumz app is able to encourage its users on the importance of saving money, on a daily basis, weekly, monthly and how these funds benefit the users at a later day
Njuguna also explained how the Chumz app has created unique features to enable the users to save money with ease without seeing the burden of saving.
Njuguna added that through the application users can customize their savings based on their favourite hobbies like watching soccer and saving.
He explained, ” If you are a fan of a particular soccer team for instance, you can choose to save money based on the number of times your favourite team has won its matches or saving money based on the number of times your opponent team has lost” Njuguna concluded.
Njuguna also pointed out that Chumz has already been licensed by the Capital Markets Authority and there it’s a safe and trusted application.
Also present during the Demo was CEO Nobuk, Elvis Bondo who explained how his company, Nobuk has been able to track Community payments, sighting the Mirema Apartments which he said, was a perfect example of how his company has been able to track payments through the Nobuk app.
Other startups that showcased their innovations were, Black Rhino VR, whose CEO and Founder Brian Afande, took the stage and showcases Black Rhino’s innovations while crediting Safaricom for accelerating it’s growth by hooking them up with other entrepreneurs.
He said these hookups have largely contributed to Black Rhino’s growth and expansion over the years.
According to Afande, Black Rhino VR has been able to shape Africa’s digital landscape by providing virtual reality and argumented reality solutions through its creative technology.
Afande also commended other business partners and entrepreneurs that have supported Black Rhino over the years, which he began back in 2015.
They included, Vuna Pay, where the CEO and Founder Koya Matsuno who together with it’s Co-Founder Gatwiri Njogu explained how the app has benefited farmers, in the Coffee, Dairy and Maize sectors sighting Vuna Pay’s ability to collaborate with cooperatives to identify needy and genuine farmers, whom they explained have also greatly benefited, through the app.
Others were HealthX where the CEO and Founder, Roy Bore, explained the importance of seeking treatment and medication virtually.
Those present during the event and who also showcased their innovations included, Twiva, FaidiHR, Chirpy among others.
Safaricom held the Spark Accelerator Demo Day to show its commitment in empowering visionary founders to scale their startups.