Winning teams from the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge competition show off their ‘cheques’, each valued at US$5,000, for finishing in the top five, following two days of competition, held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, June 3 & 4, 2016. From left are: Rowen Willabus and Ronson Gray of Directory.gy from Guyana; Stephan James and Dion Santana of Wanderscape of Trinidad and Tobago; Shannon Clarke and Lybion Sobers of MediRevu from Barbados; Walter Bernyck Counsellor from the Canadian High Commission; Dushyant Savadia, chief judge and entrepreneur; Dwayne Samuels and Shawn McLean of Samelogic along with husband and wife team of Dwayne Campbell and Kalye-Rae Fisher Campbell of Bookfusion, both from Jamaica. Over the weekend 25 tech teams from seven countries across the Caribbean showcased their mobile app business ideas in front of a panel of regional and international investors.
Press Release
Tech teams from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, T&T win first PitchIT Caribbean Challenge
Montego Bay – June 5, 2016: Mobile app developers Wanderscape, of Trinidad; Directory.GY of Guyana; Medi Revu of Barbados, and Jamaica’s SameLogic and Bookfusion, were the five teams of tech entrepreneurs which scored big at the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge tech-entrepreneurship competition which ended on Saturday (June 4, 2016) evening.
The five winners were selected after two rigorous days of pitching to two panel of judges and an audience of regional and global investors. The top five teams each took home US$5000 in seed funding to develop their businesses and have also been awarded spots in PitchIT Caribbean business accelerators across the region.
Chief Judge Dushyant Savadia of Jamaican security technology firm Amber Connect, who announced the five winners, could hardly contain his excitement over what he said were the impressive pitches the initial ten finalists made to the panel of four judges, earlier in the day.
“What I saw today was not just Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, it was truly world class,” Savadia said amid the applause. “What I have seen here was truly outstanding, truly tremendous, so congratulations to all 10.
“I am also aware you are all learning; you are all at seed stage; you are understanding the business. But to come up on this stage, and stand here in front of five judges who are extremely seasoned, who have been in the business for a long time, and withstand their questions and still be passionate and persuasive about what you are doing, is tremendously commendable,” he added.
The Government of Canada’s Counsellor and Head of Cooperation in Jamaica, Walter Bernyck, said he was overjoyed by the success of the project which, only serves to enrich the longstanding relationship between his country and the Caribbean region.
“I think that this competition turned out very well. You could see right to the end a very strong feeling of anticipation; a strong readiness to compete in the digital market,” a beaming Bernyck said.
“The World Bank and UWI Mona School of Business and Business Support Services, have done a really done a great job to coordinate everything; to keep people moving; to keep them focused on the agenda. I think overall I am very satisfied with how the process is going,” he added.
The World Bank’s Programme Officer of the Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean, Karlene Francis was just as overjoyed as her fellow donors.
“We are very pleased with the quality of the pitches on day one and also on day two; it was exceptional. On day one the pitches were excellent and on day two they were refined even greater; all the teams did an excellent job and I think they were all winners coming into this competition,” Francis said.
She added: “Based on my discussions with them, they have certainly learnt a lot from the mentors that we have provided. So overall, the World Bank is very happy with the quality of the presentations, with the quality of the mentors and the quality of judges that were and who participated. We believe the top five teams were indeed the top five. It was a very competitive process but overall they came out on top and we are very happy with the entire event.”
A total of 25 groups of mobile app developers from seven countries across the Caribbean, participated in the competition, the aim of which is to enhance the region’s mobile app development ecosystem. The project, which is part of the Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC), is being executed by the University of the West Indies Consortium, with funding from the Government of Canada and the World Bank.
Other entrants were Carib Auto Express and Caribbean Transit Solutions of Barbados; Linkup Group of Dominica; Ash.co of St. Kitts and Nevis; FARMS of St. Lucia and Kewplus, Software Interactive, Wallet Injurecare Utility, Caribbean Treasure and Drop and Lifeball Technologies of Trinidad and Tobago and ClickPaye, Money Mobile Solutions, MekUp Jamaica, GetThere, Eventah and Pandosoft of Jamaica.
Competition summary
The Montego Bay Convention Centre will come alive on June 3 – 4 when the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project (CMIP) presents the first PitchIT Caribbean Challenge June 2016. Come participate in discussions surrounding the Caribbean tech ecosystem.
25
Speakers
Kirk-Anthony Hamilton
CEO – Infiniti Partnership
Kirk-Anthony Hamilton is an architectural designer turned entrepreneur and investor from Kingston, Jamaica. He is the CEO of the Infiniti Partnership, a company connecting opportunities to a dynamic network of people, capital and markets. The business focuses on interests in real estate, hospitality, retail, lifestyle and entertainment. Kirk formed the Infiniti Partnership based on a love for collaboration and transforming ideas into business solutions. The Infiniti Partnership is a market maker providing global access. Kirk-Anthony has built a strong reputation for his ability to craft deep partnerships and build communities connecting wealth, influence and opportunity.
Raff Paquin
Co-founder – Alveo; Partner – Interaction Ventures
Raff is a result and data-driven technical leader with strong experience in ecommerce, retail, logistics, mobile and content-based marketing. His projects include Frank & Oak (2012 winner of Canada’s fastest growing startup) as a founding member, Lightspeed POS, where he led the Omni-channel and Data Sciences divisions, and more recently, Alveo. He is also a partner of Interaction Ventures, a Montreal based investment fund focusing on digital commerce technology. As a respected voice in the entrepreneurial scene, he serve as a speaker and mentor for many growing startups. He is always ready to disrupt through innovation and helps young and motivated team with their project.
Eric Osiakwan
Managing Partner – Chanzo Capital
Eric Osiakwan is a Tech Entrepreneur and Angel investor with 15 years of ICT industry leadership across Africa and the world. He has worked in 32 African countries setting up ISPs, ISPAs, IXPs and high-tech startups. He Co-Foundered Angel Africa List, Angel Fair Africa and currently serves on the board of Farmerline, Forhey, Teranga Solutions, Siqueries, Arifu, Wanjo Foods, Ghana Cyber City, WABco, Seed Engine and Appfrica – some of which are his investment.
He has founded and built companies and organizations including GNVC, GISPA, AfrISPA, Internet Research, InHand, PenPlusBytes, African Elections Portal, FOSSFA and Ghana Connect. He was part of the team that built the TEAMS submarine cable in East Africa and an ICT Consultant for the WorldBank, Soros Foundations, UNDP, USAID, USDoJ, USDoS as well as African governments and private firms. He co-authored the “Open Access Model”, adopted globally by the telecommunications industry, “Negotiating the Net” – the politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa and “The Internet in Ghana” with the Mosaic Group. He was invited to contribute ideas to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. Eric is a Stanford, MIT, Harvard, TED and Poptech fellow.
Panelists
Sergio Escobar
Managing Director – Founder Institute Montreal
Sergio A. Escobar is the Managing Director for the Silicon Valley early-stage accelerator Founder Institute in Montreal, plus acts as Program Director for Techstars Startup NEXT training program focused on sales and growth. Sergio is an international entrepreneur who started his career in the Aerospace industry, launched Mobile Payment and vertically-integrated Ecommerce companies, plus small & medium companies (meat packing plant, ostrich farming, leather manufacturing) with equity investments coming from angel investors and family offices. He manages an impressive portfolio of leading Canadian and US early-stage technology based startups in Hardware, Wearables, IoT, Enterprise SaaS, FinTech, EdTech, HealthTech, and FoodTech.
Passionate for developing startup ecosystems in emerging markets as Global Facilitator for Techstars in Latin America, US and Canada. Finally, Sergio is mentor and judge in Canada, Latin America, Silicon Valley, Singapore and London for different programs such as Momentum Accelerator, FounderLab, Startup Bootcamp FinTech, Startup Chile, Startup Peru and others.
Yoni Epstein
CEO – itel-BPO Solutions
Yoni Epstein is the Chairman & CEO of itel-BPO Solutions and holds a leading authority on the subject of outsourcing in the Caribbean along with being the first Vice-President and immediate past President of the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ). He was recently named chairman for Car Rental 8.com a rental brokerage firm based in Tampa, Florida that provides a rental car booking service that manages over 70,000 bookings per year and has supply agreements with all of the major car rental brands globally. He also sits as a Board Director of JAMPRO, Jamaica’s investment authority. Lastly, Mr. Epstein is the Chairman of Alpha Angels an angel investment group made up of other entrepreneurs in Montego Bay, Jamaica that invests in early stage startups.
Sybil Welsh
Adviser, Corporate Relations Department – Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
In her professional life, Sybil Welsh has served as Marketing Manager and Consultant in the tourism sector; Public Relations Officer and later Manager of the Human Resources, Research and Statistics of the St. Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board and part time lecturer, for the Centre for Management Development, U.W.I. (St. Kitts campus) where she lectured courses in “Organisational Behaviour and Management” and “Business Policy and Strategy” as part of the Executive Diploma in Management Programme.
She holds an MBA in International Business from The American University, Washington D.C. and a Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Business Management from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. She is also a graduate of the Executive Education Programme -Financial Institutions for Private Enterprise Development, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
About the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge
The PitchIT Caribbean Challenge June 2016 is an event in the PitchIT Caribbean Programme under the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project (CMIP). The CMIP is part of the Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC) and is executed by a University of the West Indies Consortium consisting of UWI Consulting Inc., Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM) and the Mona Business Support Services (MBSS).
Funded by the Government of Canada and executed by the World Bank, CMIP aims to develop the mobile app development ecosystem by bringing together mobile app developers, financiers, investors and industry players to accelerate the development of mobile app startups in the Caribbean.