Kenya – Mozilla awards Ksh.1 million to six tech startups

Mozilla and the Gladys Boss Foundation have each awarded Ksh. 1 million ($7,440) to seven startups from the Uasin Gishu county to help them develop their ideas and take them to the next level.

The businesses are developing a range of solutions to address issues in agriculture, media, housekeeping, and education.

The declaration was made at a workshop for college students and digital businesses that was hosted over the Easter weekend in Eldoret as a part of Mozilla’s Mashinani Initiative and the Mozilla Africa Mradi.

The startups include:

Tindo: a video-on-demand platform that targets filmmakers producing indigenous films from various communities in the region.

My Shule: An easy phone app ensuring the safe transport of students to school and back home in real time through a live bus map. It alerts the app user when the child arrives at school, and when they are heading home.

Mche: offers a comprehensive solution to smallholder farmers, providing them with advisory services on the best crops to grow in their respective geographical areas.

Mama Fua: a mobile application that links households to trained and vetted housekeepers, providing safe, convenient, and automated access to cleaning services.

Lifeline: provides quick access to critical medical information during emergencies and supports individuals with disabilities and those unable to communicate on their own behalf.

M-Rafiki: a platform for people to connect and interact while also being able to access services and businesses that they may need.

Gavo Foods: manufactures gluten-free-keto organic flours.

Mozilla Corporation Senior Director Alice Munyua said, “Mozilla is expanding efforts to build with and not for African communities while promoting models of innovation that empowering, inclusive, and grounded in the unique needs of users in the African continent.”

By establishing new, tighter relationships with regional partners to comprehend how African product needs and capacity challenges coincide, Mozilla intends to spur innovation through such projects.

The Mashinani Initiative will be completed by the ground-breaking Mozilla Africa Mradi Innovation Challenge, which will take place in Nairobi in June 2023.

“The Gladys Boss Foundation (GBF) is working with Mozilla’s Africa Mradi to ensure that tech innovators outside Nairobi and metropolitan counties have equal opportunities and platforms to showcase their innovations, are exposed to how venture capital investments work and are trained on startup accelerator opportunities available to them in the continent and globally,” said Hon. Gladys Boss, Deputy Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly and GBF Founder.