The top 5 finalists at MarkHack 2.0 will undergo a 3-month incubation programme at the Eko Innovation Center, and in addition receive a seed capital of $50,000 at the end of the programme.
The curator of MarkHack and Founder of Eko Innovation Center and Art of Technology, Victor Afolabi, disclosed this at the grand finale of the event in Lagos.
According to him the three months would involve innovative pitch sessions, workshops, masterclasses and mentorship sessions aimed at helping participants develop skills and provide them with the resources needed to transform their ideas into market-ready products, climaxed with the emergence of Aremu as the winner of MarkHack 2.0.
Mentorship and free working space at the Eko Innovation Center and other consolation prizes also await the other finalists.
Aremu, a robo-marketing tool that helps businesses run experiments to improve their product metric and conversion rate, beat nine other startups to clinch the grand prize of $5,000 at the grand finale of the event in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ozi, a web application that helps businesses acquire, engage and manage customer conversions all from one place emerged as the first runner-up, carting away the sum of $3000 while Zander, a web-enabled and user-customized response AI tool for automating social media marketing/management and all brand campaign processes emerged as the second runner-up with a prize of $2000.
Tosin Adelowo, co-founder of Aremu stated that the win serves as a validation of the enormous potential in Nigeria’s creative sector, and commended Eko Innovation Center for the MarkHack platform. “Indeed, this win is a validation that team Aremu can bring this great idea and vision to life with the potential of becoming a global brand in a few years”, Adelowo remarked.
He further expressed appreciation to the organizers of MarkHack for creating the platform that provides an opportunity for new ideas to be birthed in the creative space.
Azeez Adejumo, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ozi.ng, the second prize winner lauded the Eko Innovation Centre for promoting a culture of excellence in the discovery of new talents and ideas that will shape the future. “Getting into incubator programs has not been easy for us as entrepreneurs in Nigeria; however, MarkHack has set a pace by opening the doors of opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas on a level playing field and get mentorship on how to scale their businesses”, Adejumo said.
Themed ‘Unlocking the Power of the Creative Economy’, with focus areas on Immersive Experience (XR), Content Creation and Robo Marketing, MarkHack 2.0 is the second edition of Nigeria’s first and biggest marketing and media hackathon, MarkHack, curated by GDM Group and Eko Innovation Center. It climaxed on a disruptive note with 10 startups engaging in an innovative pitch contest of ideas before industry experts.
The top 10 startups that spiced up the evening with their innovative pitch sessions were Aremu; Ozi; Zander; Weeshr; Markett AI; VirtualX; Contenting; Shopalz; ShopXR and GetSeen.
