Sterling Bank has partnered with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Venture Capital for Africa, Verakki and GreenHouse Capital, to fund early stage ventures with grants up to ₦10 million at the NES #25 Startups Pitch which held on Sunday, 6th of October 2019, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
Sterling Bank and the NESG will announce the top three winners during the Closing Plenary Summit by the Vice President, His Excellency, Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday, 8th of October 2019. The top three winners will get grants ranging from ₦2.5 million to ₦10 million, through the Nigerian Economic Summit Group Innovation Fund.
The 10 ventures that made it to the finals are Agriple, Notitia, Phaheem Pharmaceuticals Limited, Tiny Hearts Technology, AfriNET Power Tech Solutions, Doctoora E-Health Ltd, GatePass, Loystar, Gricd Services Limited and Green Axis. They are all early-stage startups registered in Nigeria and have been doing business for no more than five years. They have pitched their business to venture capitalists and investors, and are awaiting the announcement of the top three winners, and audience choice prize.
Each startup had five minutes to pitch to prospective investors and 10 minutes to respond to their questions. The session also connected all the 10 start-ups to venture capitalists and investors.
Before the finals, precisely on Tuesday, 1st of October, Sterling Bank in partnership with NESG and GreenHouse Lab hosted a welcome dinner to kickstart a weeklong startup bootcamp to prepare the finalists for business, pitching at the grand finale, and meetings with venture capitalists and investors. The intensely educative bootcamp featured sessions on forming a team, working with coaches and/or mentors, business advisory, and communicating a venture to venture capitalists and investors with confidence.