No fewer than 10 startups have emerged winners, benefiting from a pool of winnings valued at $20,000 (over N31m), at the grand finale of the Markhack 3.0, one of Africa’s pioneering marketech, marketing communications and technology hackathon.
The hackathon was organised by the Eko Innovation Centre (EIC), in conjunction with the GDM Group and Brand Communicator.
All winners were part of the top 10 teams that qualified for the grand finale of the event after a pitching process that lasted months.
Second runners up winners are Team Converse AI. They are followed by the first runners up, Team Market AI with Team Chao emerging as the winning team.
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Asides the cheques received by the top three winners, a breakdown shows that all teams get to benefit $10,000 in AWS credits, laptops for the winning teams, access to the EIC Accelerator Programme valued at $10,000, and the opportunity for seed investment from partnering investors.
Speaking on the rationale behind Markhack, Victor Gbenga Afolabi, the convener and visionary behind MarkHack, explained that the event focused on four primary areas shaping the future of marketing – E-Commerce Evolution, AI-Driven Personalisation, Blockchain for Business, and Localising XR, had 2,733 registrations and 75 startups from 4 countries submitting their innovative solutions for evaluation.
The initiative featured 7 pre-conversation sessions with 17 industry experts, followed by a pitch event where startups presented their ideas to a panel of 19 selection jurors.
The top 10 teams advanced to the Mentor’s Nest phase, receiving coaching and support from 15 assigned mentors who offered valuable insights on how startups could fine-tune their solutions and achieve the right product-market fit.
The Markhack featured an inaugural conference with a focus on aligning with the times and finding tech-driven solutions to problems of the marketing communications industry which is projected to reach N605.2 billion by 2028 according to a PwC report and even more staggering projection of US$2 billion by 2025 according to the TEMPLARS Market Report.
Publisher of Brand Communicator and organising Partner of the Markhack3.0, Joshua Ajayi, stated that marketing and media is evolving at an unprecedented pace.