How It Went Down at Pivot East

The two-day Pivot East tech competition has come to an end. This year’s event had finalists from around East Africa trying to impress panelists with innovative Web and mobile applications. The entries were divided into the following categories: Financial Services, Business and Resource Management, Entertainment, Mobile Society and Utilities.

Fomobi Solutions’ SchoolBursar beat out ChamaPro, Changamka, mCollector and Pay4Us to win the financial services category. The app is reliant on M-Pesa and manages school fee payment, reports to guardians and administration on fee balances.

Uganda’s Afro Cyber Inc Solutions’ EasyOrder won in the Business and Resource Management category scoring more points than Bei Nafuu, Dairy Sacco, Get-it and Wakili. EasyOrder is SMS-based and simplifies supplies management.

In the entertainment category, the localized racing game, Ma3racer, emerged the winner over other games, RunForAfrika and Tough Jungle, chat application, Mingle, and gambling app, TUBET. The Planet Rackus-developed game is set in Nairobi and impressed the panelists because it already has a sizeable fan base.

MPrep scored the most points in the mobile society category beating out eLimu, mPoultry and Sarura. MPrep had less competitors to beat after StorySpaces was eliminated in the last minute. AppsDivisions’ MafutaGo was the top app in the utilities category. Others in the category were 6ixDegrees, CrowdPesa, mTracker and M-Verified.

The overall winner was chosen by determining which presentation received the most votes overall across all categories. Planet Rackus’ Ma3racer garnered most votes to win this year’s Pivot East competition. The win means they’ll get an all expenses paid trip to GITEX Technology Week in Dubai to showcase their work.