By Funsho Arogundade
After three months of innovative pitches, workshops, master classes and mentorships aimed at helping participants develop skills and provide them with the resources needed to transform their ideas into market-ready products, MarkHack 2.0 climaxed with the emergence of Aremu as the eventual winner.
A robo-marketing tool that helps businesses run experiments to improve their product metric and conversion rate, Aremu, beat nine other startups to clinch the grand prize of $5,000.
With the theme: ‘Unlocking the Power of the Creative Economy’ with focus areas on Immersive Experience (XR), Content Creation and Robo Marketing, MarkHack 2.0, curated by GDM Group and Eko Innovation Center, climaxed on a disruptive note with 10 startups engaging in an innovative pitch contest of ideas before industry experts.
Ozi, a web application that helps businesses acquire, engage and manage customer conversions all from one place, emerged as the first runner-up, carting away the sum of $3,000 while Zander, a web-enabled and user-customized response AI tool for automating social media, marketing/management and all brand campaign processes, took the second runner-up position with a prize of $2,000.
The five finalists will undergo a 3-month incubation programme at Eko Innovation Center, and receive a seed capital of $50,000. Also awaiting them are mentorship and free working space at the center, including other consolation prizes.
According to Tosin Adelowo, co-founder of Aremu, the win serves as a validation of the enormous potential in Nigeria’s creative sector. “Indeed, this win is a validation that Team Aremu can bring this great idea and vision to life with the potential of becoming a global brand in a few years,” he remarked.
Victor Afolabi, curator of MarkHack and founder, Eko Innovation Center and Art of Technology Lagos, reiterated his vision for disrupting Nigeria’s creative industry with MarkHack 2.0 by capitalizing on the huge economic potential that abounds in the sector.
“The creative industry drives innovation and growth, which makes it a powerhouse for the Nigerian economy; and MarkHack 2.0 aims to disrupt the creative economy by providing a landing space for marketing and media professionals, tech enthusiasts, creators, innovators and industry leaders to collaborate and explore new and innovative ways to steer us into a future-fit creative economy,” he stated.