If you’re part of a startup team and you’d like to get some funding to scale things up, here’s your chance to make it happen. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) is organizing a pitching event for early-stage startups, which should see the winning team clinch a grand prize of ₦10 million.
The NES #25 Startup Pitching Event (as it’s called) is part of the annual Nigerian Economic Summit organized by the NESG. The main conference is organized with the aim of charting a sustainable forward-looking course for the Nigeria economy. This year’s edition is its 25th.
The pitching event was introduced in 2017, in the bid to capture the country’s fast-growing startup scene in the conversation about national development. Two years on, it’s attracting the interest of Nigeria’s budding tech ventures, with many of them slugging it out for a share of the funding on offer.
This year’s NES Startup Pitching event will have 10 finalists pitch their ideas to a panel. The top three teams will win between ₦2.5 million and ₦10 million. The audience will also have the chance to select an additional finalist for a ₦1 million prize.
But these contestants will need to prove that their ventures are worth supporting. And they’ll have to do this in 5 minutes, and answer tough questions about their idea for another 10 minutes.
If you’re confident that your idea is good enough to scale these hurdles, here’s how you can start the journey to the pitch proper.
Eligibility
Besides having a great solution to show, your startup has to meet the following criteria:
- It should be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
- It should be no more than 5 years old.
- It must belong in any one of these sectors: agriculture, health, education, ICT, manufacturing, renewable energy, and transportation.
Be sure that you have the following ready as well:
- CAC Certificate of Incorporation
- Summary Business Plan (a maximum of 3 pages)
- Your pitch deck
The Process
Applications for the NES Startup Pitching Event are open until August 31.
After the process is closed, the selection committee will sift through the entries and select 10 finalists from the number. This will take place through the month of September.
These 10 finalists will take part in a week-long bootcamp, from October 1-5, at the Vibranium Tech Hub in Lagos. There, their pitching skills will be fine-tuned by mentors and coaches.
The pitching event will take place on October 6. The top three teams and a fourth chosen by the audience will receive prize money. All finalists will continue to get support from the NESG through its Innovation Fund and Labs.
If you’d like to enter this competition, you can click here to get started.
Featured image source: The Nation
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