Four start-ups touch $10,000 Accelerate prize

January 18, 2017 in Business, Companies, Financial Services by Editor

Kampala January 18- Four start-ups have each won $10,000 in the first Up Accelerate programme cycle that seeks to help them develop their ideas into transformative solutions to persistent sexual and reproductive health bottlenecks in Uganda.

SNAP HMIS, Teheca, Drug Das and, iDrain offered the most promising solutions out of the ten start-ups that participated in the competition that seeks to explore new and engaging ways to tackle pressing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges in Uganda while promoting social entrepreneurship among young people using technology innovation.

“We were impressed by the response and level of engagement of young people despite the complexity of the problem areas within which we wanted them to propose solutions. The amount of conversation, feedback and effort exhibited during the application period is testimony to the demand for programmes like Up Accelerate among the young people in Uganda,” said Richard Zulu, the Outbox team leader said.

Each of the four winners will be supported with business development and undergo a four-month intensive mentorship period to turn their ideas into sustainable, market ready products or services in addition to the grant won.

John Charles Okiria a Dean at the International Health Sciences University who was among the panel of Judges applauded the innovative ideas that were presented at the event on how mobile phones can be used to access quality health care. He added that while choosing the final four, the judges considered how the ideas presented would fit into the current situation, their feasibility and whether the proposed solutions would be readily consumed by the target markets.