Mayor Tau to announce HackJozi winner
16 May 2016
Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau will on Thursday May 19 announce the overall winner of the R1.7-million 2016 #Hack.Jozi Challenge, a City initiative that seeks to unearth hidden and budding digital talent and develop innovative ideas.
The initiative is run by the City in partnership with the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering at Wits University.
The overall winner of the challenge – which is in its second season – will pocket a whopping R1-million, while the first and second runners-up will receive R350 000 each.
All three winners will receive business mentorship support on how best to invest their winnings to further develop their ideas. On Friday May 13 the #Hack.Jozi Challenge held a “demo day” at the Digital Innovation Zone in Braamfontein, where the 10 finalists tried to outdo one another ahead of the announcement of the top three prize winners.
The finalists sought to convince the panel of judges that their ideas and technological innovations were deserving of the top prize.
“We change lives by giving away R1-million to the best and most innovative idea. Judges are looking for the idea that strikes the most potential and the idea that can become a viable business within the year,” said Wits University's Professor Barry Dwolatzky.
The top 10 finalists have already undergone three gruelling rounds of the competition and have been judged on the technical feasibility of their ideas, the scaleability potential and the “wow-factor,” according to Ravi Naidoo, the City’s Executive Director of Economic Development.
“We’re also pleased to see that other government agencies such, as the City of Cape Town and the Department of Water and Sanitation, have taken a cue from the City of Johannesburg to embrace the digital era in their environments and encourage technology innovation as a way to address relevant problems and promote entrepreneurship,” said Naidoo.
The 10 finalists who battled it out on “demo day” were Spotless Laundries, CRSP dsgn with the Low Cost Educational Robotics Toy (LCERT), TimeWize Parental Control, Tuta-Me, Mensch, Advicement, DUEPROP, Gradrr, TechnoVera and eSubmit. Participants spoke highly of the #Hack.Jozi challenge.
LCERT founder Nthando Moagi said the competition had created an invaluable platform to engage other like-minded individuals as well as mentors.
“Participating in the challenge has been an amazing experience for me. The mentorship and coaching I received have enabled me to take my invention from a concept to a viable business with a great value proposition,” said Moagi.
TechnoVera founder Neo Hutiri said the challenge was ideally positioned to discover catalysts for positive change.
“It’s an awesome platform for entrepreneurs with great ideas about making the city better. Citizens finding ways to help our municipality serve our people better by leveraging on technology,” said Hutiri.
Spotless Laundries founder and CEO Witty Matsomela said the challenge had helped her better tailor her business.
“It has enabled us to learn more about truly understanding customer needs, experiences and how those needs must be fulfilled. It has taught us to be customer-centric by putting the customer first in all aspects of solution design. We’ve also developed valuable relationships with other entrepreneurs and have been provided with good feedback from the judges, trainers and coaches,” added Matsomela.