WASHINGTON, D.C. — December, 4, 2018 — Global Innovation Exchange announced Akellobanker, a data-driven mobile tech platform, as the winner of its Digital Pitch Contest geared towards propelling global development innovations to the next level. Akellobanker competed with more 200 social enterprises for the opportunity to win a grand prize worth US$15,000.

Akellobanker enables low-income earners including farmers, youth, women and disabled persons to access mechanized agricultural services, improved seed and medical services on credit. Learn more aboutAkellobanker’s innovation and key milestones.

GIE’s Digital Pitch Contest helped propel global development innovations to the next level by helping social entrepreneurs perfect their fundraising pitch to secure their next round of funding and improving their innovation pages that help them get in front of funders and other partners. The grand prize worth US$15,000 included: storytelling advisory and production of a short promotional video by Vivid Story, and three hours of personalized pitch coaching by the renowned Nathan Gold. The winner, as well as four finalists, also received free access to the CASE Smart Impact Capital toolkit from Duke University.

"I thought I knew how to convey/pitch our innovation until the Demo Coach, Nathan Gold, started his work on me," says Jean Onyait of Akellobanker. "I have since become articulate in communicating our innovation to different audiences.
 The Video from Vivid Story will enable us to share our story with millions of people and drive resources to enable us to furtherpush for impact across different locations in Uganda & Africa."

Not just another contest

This three-month experience gave all participants access to:

1. A video tutorial provided by Nathan Gold that helped participants understand the core components of a pitch and how they could leverage GIE.
   
2. A three-part webinar series that coached participants to improve their pitch featuring experts and funders across the industry such as DFAT, Duke University’s Cathy Clark, and SecondMuse.
   
3. Opportunity to get basic feedback from the GIE team on their digital pitch as long as applications were submitted by the early deadline.

The Contest also had the following four finalists:

1. World Possible [Education - Guatemala, Sierra Leone, & More]Connecting offline learners to the World's knowledge - RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education & Learning) is a low-cost, plug-and-play digital library for the 52% of the world's population without internet.
2. Maji Mamas [Water Management - Kenya]Women using social enterprise to transition from water bearer to water provider, launching scaleable water and sanitation businesses.
3. X-Runner [Water Sanitation & Hygiene - Peru]We provide a non-conventional sanitation solution for families who live in informal human settlements in Lima and lack access to water and safely managed sanitation.
4. CoolCap Fund [Agriculture - Kenya]Providing innovative “Pay-As-You-Harvest” equipment financing to mechanize smallholder farmers globally, resulting in increased production, income, food security, and a significant reduction in manual labor.

Bringing exposure and new opportunities for global innovations

This campaign was part of GIE’s goal to support global development innovations on the platform by bringing them new opportunities that help them get in front of funders and other potential scaling partners. All participants are featured on the global database, where they can be discovered well beyond the three-month duration of the contest. In 2018, GIE also partnered with the UN on two events, the Science, Technology & Innovation Forum, and Solutions Summit, to select innovations to be featured at the event. GIE plans to continue these efforts through new initiatives such as Innovation Finder, a service for funders and investors providing them a short list of innovations from the database for their consideration.

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About Global Innovation Exchange

Global Innovation Exchange (GIE) is a global development tech platform for innovations, funding and insights. The database of close to 10,000 innovations, $500 million+ of cumulative funding, and $1.3 billion+ of past funding history serves as a fundraising resource for social entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries as well as a source of innovation information for the entire global development ecosystem. GIE is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Australian Department of Foreign Assistance and Trade (Australian Aid), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and managed by Results for Development. www.globalinnovationexchange.org

About Results for Development

Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too. For more information, visit our website at: www.r4d.org.