About N53 million in prize money was won at the end of a keenly contested hackathon session at the second edition of the Zenith Tech Fair, themed: “Future Forward 2.0”.
The prize money was shared among 11 finalists who emerged from the over 500 contestants that took part in the hackathon, held on Wednesday at the Eko Convention Centre, Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Ecotutu, a cleantech company making cooling affordable and accessible for businesses, especially in the agricultural sector, emerged the overall winner and went home with the grand prize of N20 million.
This is in addition to a mentorship programme with Seedstars, a company dedicated to implementing high-quality capacity-building programmes for entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
The first runner-up, Foris Labs, an app-based platform that allows students to conduct science experiments individually and in groups interactively via their mobile phones, won N15 million, while the second runner-up, Finva, a start-up which helps creditors offer credits at low risk collected N10 million in addition to a mentorship programme with Seedstars, respectively.
Other finalists took home N1 million each, including Sanwo, Itinu -Ev, Eduvacity, Green Bii, Zion Robotics, Sono Care, Base, and I Grow Africa.
The only thing left is to activate the digital talents, tech skills and entrepreneurship that would culminate in a new digital economy for Nigeria.
Speaking during the presentation of the prize monies, the Group Managing Director/CEO, Zenith Bank Plc, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, congratulated all the finalists on coming this far in the competition, reiterating the bank’s readiness to provide all the necessary support to make the budding entrepreneurs succeed.
He said: “All finalists would be enlisted into our incubation lab for grooming and mentorship. Our expectation is that we are going to scale and grow them just like the Zenith brand.
“So, looking at what we have gone through, I can tell you that so much iron has been loaded on fire. The only thing left is to activate the digital talents, tech skills and entrepreneurship that would culminate in a new digital economy for Nigeria.”
Described as a huge success by the participants, the two-day tech fair featured presentations on the leading technological innovations that cut across different aspects of life, such as artificial intelligence, computing, machine learning, blockchain, robotics, big data, fintech, augmented reality, data analytics, 5G and communication technologies.
