By A LOCAL startup MyRunner cruised its way to victory scooping the first prize of the Seedstars Harare after a grueling competition. Tears of joy, roaring cheers of the attendants could be resoundingly heard as they celebrated with MuRunner for winning the top spot.
There were 10 startups that pitched their brilliant business ideas at Impact Hub on Friday. Judges took more than an hour deliberating on a decision to draw out a winner. Speaking to the startup winner Vusa he said all their input and sacrifices finally paid off. Representing Zimbabwe, MyRunner won a chance to compete for a cool $1 million in Switzerland next year.
“I feel very thankful to God because I think God has taken us this far. We’ve been building this business for two years. We’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices. I’d like to thank my team, they haven’t given up on me when things were really tough,” he said.
The elated Vusa said they didn’t see it coming they would become the winners.
“But we didn’t really expect it. It was my first time to really come and pitch a business in front of people but I was really not expecting it,” he said.
The first runner up at the competition was Munch, a food delivery service application with the second runner up being Equities Nest which assists locals in buying shares in companies.
Tipstar, an online aggregator of stories from citizen journalists won the Civic Tech award for affording untrained journalists the exposure of expressing and sharing with the worked about what’s happening in their communities .
The best learner prize went to Commonground, an application which connects university students.
The 5 startups will be part of a Zimbabwe delegation that will attend the upcoming Africa Regional Summit in Maputo, Mozambique from the 12th to 14th of December. T
The ten startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury: Ethel Bangwayo, national economist at UNDP Zimbabwe, Nhena Nyagura, Chief Executive Officer at Dandemutande Investments, Nigel Daura, Managing Director at Daura Vanderbilt Digital Commerce, Sharon Wekwete, consultant at the Omidyar Network, and Claudia Makadristo, regional manager for Africa at Seedstars World.
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