At the second edition of the LEAP Technology Conference pitch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, two Nigerian entrepreneurs made their motherland proud as they emerged winners in the final awards of the conference, with a combined total prize of $300,000.

The Nigerian team which was sponsored by the Digital Cooperation Organisation participated in six different categories, winning two out of the six globally categorized pitched while taking the 2nd spot in another class.

With over 10,000 startups that submitted applications from different countries, the applicants were cut down to 220, and only 90 startups were selected to pitch their business inventions in the semi-finals, after strict scrutiny.

Under the Tech Agro Firm, the Nigerian startup RiceAfrika Technologies emerged as the winner. The startup is a tech-driven agric optimization that deploys an IoT-enabled harvester and its FARMEasy mobile app for smallholder farming communities in Africa.

The startup tech emerged as the global best in ‘The Tech for Humanity Award category.

The second winner was an innovative tech startup, Wicrypt which won the global best in ‘The Into New World Award’ category. The startup aims at decentralizing the internet globally and has a custom OS and hardware that allows users to share data with people around them and charge an affordable rate.

Both winners were awarded $150,000 each to boost their startup vision among other supports that include mentorship and early exposure to wider markets.

The LEAP Technology Conference 2023 is recognized as the world’s most visionary and valuable technology event with a prize purse of $1.54 million for winning startups.

This win has strengthened the Nigeria’s position as the leading startup hub in Africa