Three startups get NSIA’s $220,000 prize for innovation

The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) says three local startups will receive $220,000 as the top finalists in the second edition of the ‘NSIA prize for innovation (NPI 2.0)’.

The companies are Sycamore, a peer-to-peer lending fintech platform, Kunda Kids, an edtech media company, and PaveHQ, a learning and career ecosystem.

The NPI programme is a multi-year initiative aimed at identifying innovative technological solutions developed by Nigerian tech entrepreneurs.

Focused on technology-enabled businesses in sectors such as financial services, agriculture, health, education, manufacturing, logistics and e-mobility, e-commerce and marketplaces, and climate, the programme adopted a four-stage competition round.

At the end of the rounds, ten finalists emerged from a pool of 7,000 applications to pitch on ‘Demo Day’ for a chance to win various prizes.

The three startup companies emerged as winners from the ten finalists after pitching their ideas to an expert panel of judges at Demo Day on July 19 in Lagos.

Sycamore won the star prize value of $100,000, Kunda Kids followed closely in the second position with a prize of $70,000, while PaveHQ came third, receiving a $50,000 prize.

In addition to the funds, the winners were rewarded with a five-week all-expense-paid trip to Draper University, Silicon Valley, United States.

Aminu Umar-Sadiq, NSIA’s managing director (MD), said the event seeks to unite the ecosystem of regulators, financiers, and idea generators to create something remarkable and not only to award prizes.

Although the cash prizes were valued in dollars, Umar-Sadiq said disbursement “is going to be in naira”.

“But in addition, we are not giving out any amount. We are investing the amount. So it is actually equity that NSIA will take in these businesses,” he said.

WHY NSIA IS INVESTING IN TECH

He emphasised the critical role of technology in supporting various other sectors of the economy, such as healthcare, agriculture, and infrastructure.

The NSIA CEO said a robust technology is essential to improve efficiency in these areas, making it crucial to invest in the sector.

“If you look at our demography, you look at the kind of breakdown of who Nigerians are. A lot of focus alongside the creative space is also in the technology space. So it is extremely important that NSIA is invested in it,” the NSIA boss said. 

“A lot of capital does not go into the startup SME space. I think the more that NSIA can mobilise capital and channel that to the tech space, the VC space, particularly the early stage VC space, I think the economy will be better off in terms of wealth creation, in terms of job creation, in terms of connectivity within sectors and I think this is essentially the first phase in doing so.”

On his part, Kola Owodunni, the executive director and chief investment officer at NSIA, said the programme aims to stimulate the startup ecosystem within Nigeria.

He added that it seeks to showcase these portfolio companies to investors within the ecosystem, enabling them to secure the capital needed to grow and scale across Africa

Babatunde Akin-Moses, chief executive officer of Sycamore, expressed gratitude to NSIA for the support and opportunity to win the prize.

He said his goal is to expand the company’s reach to other countries in Africa and, eventually, to Europe and North America, viewing this as a starting point.