Six innovations by Kenya developers have secured a Ksh 13 million grant from Mozilla Africa to help them accelerate and scale to bigger ventures.
Through the Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge organized by the internet tech giant in collaboration with Nairobi City County Government (NCCG), three tech start-ups, Getpayd, Deaf Elimu and Hali Halisi and three student innovators, Classify Me, Audred and Mama Pesa were selected during the pitching process.
“From 2015 Mozilla has distributed over $20 million through fellowships and awards to support individual and collective actions that nurture unique innovations that benefit communities,” said Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Corporation Chief Executive Officer.
The programme seeks to identify African tech entrepreneurs, startups and tech students who can benefit from an acceleration programme that provides technical support, access to grants and market access for their products.
The initiative is designed to promote innovation led by and grounded in the unique needs of users on the African continent.
“Nairobi City County Government is working with Mozilla Africa Mradi to ensure that tech start-ups and innovators get access to grants and are enabled to access venture capital investments locally and globally,” added Johnson Sakaja, Nairobi County Governor.
To further support innovation, the county has established an incubation hub at the Eastlands Library in Maringo Hamza Ward in Makadara that supports at least 20 startups on investor readiness and coding for kids aged 7-13 years.
“Advancing Africa’s Digital Economy is at the heart of ATU’s mandate. We work to create harmonized digital economies through standardized policy and regulatory frameworks for the African Region,” said John Omo, African Telecommunication Union (ATU) Secretary-General.
The Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge was launched in Nairobi in May 2023 with a call to tech innovators in Africa to develop creative solutions for unique African needs.
