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Healthcare App Kangpe named Nigeria’s best startup at Seedstars Lagos

Healthcare App Kangpe named Nigeria’s best startup at Seedstars Lagos

Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes brought its Nigeria round to a successful close during Seedstars Lagos. The event took place at Seedspace, with the support of Omidyar Network, where 8 selected startups were invited to present their ideas in front of the local and injury panel.

The local winner was Kangpe, which is a platform that allows Africans  to discuss health issues quickly and confidentially with verified doctors 24/7 via SMS, Mobile App, or Web within minutes.

“I am a trained doctor and as soon as everyone would hear this they would always ask me for advice. I saw a real need for people to have access to doctors, even in the most rural of areas,” explains Founder’s name, founder/CEO of Kangpe. As a part of the prize, Kangpe will be participating at Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in March 2017, a weeklong training program with the opportunity to meet the other 60 winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to the USD 1 million equity investment.

The 1st runner up was the Tuteria Company, an online platform that connects people seeking to learn anything, with those who can teach them what they want to learn came second and 2nd runner-up,Davtonlear, an online/cloud based video learning (E-learning) for professional certifications and courses grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were Legal Form Limited, Quick Gas, Piggybank.ng, Kangpe, Grit Systems and Social Lender

Seedstars World has closely worked with Omidyar Network in order to deliver the best possible event and to provide local entrepreneurs with this opportunity. “We are delighted to be a sponsor of Seedstars. We see it as a very important part of encouraging early stage entrepreneurs and providing them with mentorship, access to investment, support and learning.” said Stephen King, Partner at Omidyar Network.

The 8 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Simeon Ononobi CEO and Founder at SimplePay, Benjamin Benaim, Founding Partner at Seedstars, Juliet Nwanguma, Country Manager at PayU, Tidjane Deme, Partner at Partech Ventures.

Seedstars Lagos featured an insightful panel discussion about Education, Technology and Entrepreneurship moderated by David Deko, Managing Director Seedstars Academy at Seedstars, with Stephen King Partner at Omidyar Network, Dr Omobola Johnson, Partner at TLcom Capital, Akin Oyebode Executive Secretary of the Employment Trust Fund.

At the finale Benjamin Benaim, founding partner at Seedstars stated that: “Our mission is to discover startups that come from bustling, emerging econowmies like Nigeria and give them access to opportunities for support and funding. Specially this year, we have launched our first physical coworking space in Nigeria called Seedspace and the Seedstars Academy where we are constantly striving to add more value to our startups. We are very excited to bring Kangpe to the global stage.”

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