By: Hee-Dee Walenga
The Basecamp Business Incubator hosted its second Nexus speed pitch event of the year on Wednesday evening in Windhoek.
The quarterly event serves as an opportunity for local founders still in the ideation phase to pitch their ideas for a chance to win N$5,000.
The prize money is intended to go towards funding early administrative or operational costs.
The founders pitching were Tino Marufu of Dial-A-Helper, Sunday Indongo of JUNO, Freddy Samuel of AgriConnect, and Lothar Tjipueja of CityAlerts. All four founders pitched digital tools intended to help the community gain access to information, alerts, services, and opportunities.
“The young founders presented innovative ideas. Tonight was proof that the digital divide in Namibia is slowly closing and that Namibia can compete at an international level,” Basecamp Business Development Manager, Tuyamba Akwaake told The Villager.
The CityAlerts founder ultimately emerged as the cash prize winner. “It feels great to win. There were all brilliant ideas being pitched tonight. This is a brilliant initiative from Basecamp. It gives us young entrepreneurs the opportunity to showcase our talents and get our name out there,” Tjipueja expressed.
The first Nexus Speed Pitch event of the year also saw a digital tool take first place, namely NXAlingo, a mobile application aiming to teach Namibians local languages for free, founded by Fatima Camila van Wyk.
CityAlerts is a community driven mobile application which gives citizens a platform to inform one another about incidents in real time and immediately alert the relevant authorities. Tjipueja explained during his pitch that the application is meant to bring Namibia together by providing a centralised platform for citizens to share what is happening in their surroundings.
Immanuel Ndawedapo, founder of Industrialink, was the guest speaker for the evening. Ndawedapo is a living testament to what the Basecamp Business Incubator can help facilitate.
The lightbulb moment for Ndawedapo to recycle chemical waste into solvents such as ethanol came five years ago on the construction site as a fresh chemistry graduate from UNAM seeking employment.
Since then, Ndawedapo has become an industry leader with Industrialink and has secured contracts with corporations such as Namibia Plastics and Pupkewitz Megabuild.
“Basecamp is part of our journey. They provided me with mentorship and training when I was receiving grants in the early stages of the business,” Ndawedapo explained to The Villager.
He encouraged the pitching founders to block out any outside noise and to innovate with the intention of scaling beyond Namibia.
“There is an urgent need for us to think regional and abroad. You have to innovate for a global impact, not only a local one. Build wholly and innovate furiously,” Ndawedapo stated.
