About BongoHive’s Launch demo night

Last night local technology and innovation hub BongoHive held their Launch demo night event which had 7 pitches from recognised startups.

Launch is an entrepreneurship programme designed for startups that want to scale. They undergo training for about 4 months with BongoHive’s Startup Incubation Lead and are assigned relevant mentors and also have access to legal advice. Startups have to be registered companies to participate.

Last night the 7 startups that made their final pitches were:

• Fixer: an online platform that links users to professional servicemen like plumbers or mechanics, or working mothers to nannies and maids. It screens all its servicemen and ensure that the workmanship of their serviceman database is of high quality. There is also an option for users to rate and recommend who they hire on their Fixer profile.

• Your Insider Zambia: This isa guide aimed at both foreign and local travelers on what places to visit in Zambia, on and off season. It wants to showcase the many places that are not so popular with tourists, and share what’s there to see.

• ZedHair: catering to the natural hair society, ZedHair provides quality information, services and products on natural hair care.

• 360Deals: this is an e-Commerce site that all0ws users to search for the best deals on items such as food, drinks, devices, etc from merchants in Zambia.

• Tamanga Ticketing: this is a bus ticketing platform that fleet owners can use to track payments and other big data about their transport business. It was developed by Flair Technologies which is a startup software development company.

• MaFashio: consisting of sisters Kahyi and Kii, the fashion startup aims to provide fashion styling and makeup services as a business to both organizations and individuals.

• Street Culture: they are an events and arts startup that wants to be the go-to source of entertainment in Zambia. They are planning on launching a clothing line as well to push ‘street culture’ among youth in Zambia in a positive way.

The top 3 pitches of the night were awarded by a panel of judges to ZedHair, Street Culture and MaFashio respectively. The judges contribute 40% of the total score and the top 3 startups will proceed to the next stage of assessment, where 60 % of the score will be given by BongoHive and then the finalists will be admitted into Thrive, another  Bongohive programme that gives startups ‘dedicated co-working space at the hub and the support they need to grow and transition from a startup to an investable and scalable business’.

The judges were:

• Will Person (Managing director of Triskel Africa),
• Helen Samatebele (Entrepreneur and industry champion) and
• Chris Mulenga (Manging Director of CCM properties)

See some photos from the event below: