The Nest is a Zoom-based digital event where each week three startups pitch to a panel of potential investors to secure funding. A session of The Nest that took place last week (May 14), helped African startups secure over $135K funding commitments from angel investors including Vishal Agarwal, Zachariah George, Raj Kulasingam, Sewu-Steve Tavia, Jim Davidson and Piers Clark.
In the fourth episode of The Nest, another three startups took part, in which the Egypt-based Interact Labs received a commitment of around $60K from participating angels including Laurent Lamothe, Geetha Tharmaratnam, and Kulasingam.
Interact Labs develops hardware and software products that enhance collaboration, increase engagement and effectiveness through an enhanced user experience and interactivity.
The other startups which took part in the event were Ivory Coast’s Julaya, which provides small merchants and SMEs with access to digital financial services, and Kenya’s MPost, which creates virtual postal addresses for users.
Amid the pandemic situation, The Nest will be held every Thursday, as Jim Chu, CEO of UNTAPPED and the organiser of The Nest told Disrupt Africa.
Sharing his commitment and vision for The Nest, Chu said,
“We’ve seen the potential for this to make so many valuable connections, we are definitely going to keep it going, indefinitely,”
“I’d like to see The Nest for different regions and specific verticals in the future. We intend to open-source the operating model and brand so that others can take it far beyond what we can do.”
