This year’s edition of DEMO Africa is now open to applications, with startups being invited to send their applications starting March 18, 2015 and is set to run until the end of May when the window is scheduled to close.
With the main event scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria on the 24th and 25th September this year, qualifying applications will be taken through an adjudication process that will select 30 startups which will be invited to pitch and compete at the DEMO Africa stage.
Like every year, the 2015 edition of DEMO Africa demands that startups wanting to qualify for consideration must ensure that their products possess the ability to impact that marketplace for which they are targeting, must have a clear business plan as well as a capable team to deliver the product, business must be legally registered and every product must be ready for launch.
“We are looking forward to having even more mature applications this year. This means that competition will be stiff and I would encourage startup entrepreneurs to present their best,” says Ben White, the Co-founder and CEO VC4Africa.
The competition is open under 12 categories that include Agriculture, Health, Education, Manufacturing, Retail, Media and Entertainment, Communication, Transport and Logistics, Energy, Finance and Banking, Water and Sanitation as well as Waste management and Recycling.
Priority will be given to innovations that demonstrate a massive potential to scale and disrupt the market, with application being vetted by a panel consisting of experts in business and technology, who will be responsible for selecting the 30 that will have the opportunity to launch their products to a pool of investors, tech acquisition specialists, IT buyers and media from across the globe.
Initiated back in 2012, DEMO Africa records growing numbers of applications each year and this year’s edition is also expected to register growing numbers, especially with more African entrepreneurs showing their interest in becoming part of the continent’s entrepreneurship revolution by ever-growing innovations.
“I am glad that the scene keeps heating up with each passing DEMO Africa event. The next challenge is to see a widespread consumption of locally manufactured solutions. Then Africa will have satisfactorily joined the league of world greatest economies,” said Neal Silverman Senior VP DEMO Conference.
To apply for DEMO Africa, entrepreneurs are required to sign up and submit their applications online through the VC4Africa Demo Africa page.
Last year’s event saw 6 startups live the dream that every innovator dreams about; to tour Silicon Valley and interact with great minds as well as share their innovative ideas. Among the startups was Kenya’s own Chura – a Web and SMS based service that lets mobile users access Airtime and mobile money services across the different mobile networks.
