DRUMROLL, PLEASE! ANNOUNCING THE FINALISTS OF THE NAIROBI NEGAWATT CHALLENGE

Finally! We are delighted to announce the winning teams of the Nairobi edition of the Negawatt Challenge. After much deliberation from our expert judges, the following are our finalists:

Plugin: The team’s solution, Plugin Pulse, will drive solar energy adoption and provide solar energy providers and energy data consumers with a myriad of energy usage data across different consumer groups including households, organizations and factories. The team, positioning itself to be the ‘Google Analytics’ of energy data in Africa is composed of Dr. Winnie Waudo (CEO and clean energy expert), Graham Ingokho (Operations and technology lead), Michael Mugo (CFO), Kelvin Micheni (Lead product development and R&D) and Pharis Kahama (Lead designer user experience).

Angaza: The team unveiled a solution to help energy consumers’ move from grid to solar bit by bit. The Angaza Smart Energy device also promises to help consumers keep track of consumption, reduce monthly utility bill by optimally connecting different home appliances to different energy sources. Starting off with Kshs 15,000 for a Kshs .100,000 system, users will enjoy affordable and stable power supply, as well as smart energy management and monitoring. The team behind this innovation are all young engineering students and include:Phillip Ochola (Team Leader), Frankline Mogoi (User Experience), Clement Nzau (Marketing) and Caroline Njeri (Business Lead).

Congratulations Plugin and Angaza!

These two teams will proceed to the Acceleration phase where focus will be on MVP development and launch of their products.

We want to pass our congratulatory message to the other teams for making it this far! We will continue to engage with you at different levels in the journey towards making your innovations a reality.

(NOTE: This article was first published on the *ihub Website.)