CommuTalk Reporter
HARARE: It was an eventful week, filled with suspense, subtle competition, and a utopia of ideas from upcoming content creators in Zimbabwe.
Organized by the Zimbabwe Content Creators Network, the event ran from the 8th to the 12th of November, with 48 pitches submitted for evaluation.
The Network’s Convenor, Samm Farai Monro who is popularly known as Comrade Fatso said the startup week was meant to amplify new voices and support the quest for social justice.
“It’s been a fantastic five days of different media start-ups pitching their ideas to win USD 2000 each to get their ideas off the ground. We had some amazing pitches from 48 applications from different media houses across the country, and now we are left with the final five who will get the seed capital as support for new independent media. We definitely want to make this an annual event,” said Comrade Fatso.
The 48 applications were evaluated and only 20 made it to the pitching contest which started on Monday. From these 20, only 12 pitches were selected to participate in the final pitching stage on Thursday.
These 12 were given mentors to add value to their pitches in a 24-hour period.
As part of the funding partners supporting the event, The US Embassy Public Affairs Section said they are excited to be part of the event as they seek to support media innovative ideas in Zimbabwe.
“First of all, I want to congratulate the Content Creators Network and its members for a successful media startup week. The US has supported this week as part of our desire to see innovation in the media especially during this time of the Covid pandemic.
“We need new ideas to reach previously ignored audiences and also at the same support those already existing. So, we have been shifting with the people of Zimbabwe and we have a lot of your ideas which we are going to support,” said Jason Corcoran Roberts, the Public Diplomacy Officer at U.S. Embassy Harare.
It was a winning galore for the last 12 competitors as not only the top five were awarded but everyone went home with a prize. The top four winners went away with a US$ 2000 prize, followed by a tied 5th position which split to US$1000 each. The 7th position to the 10th position shared US$500 each while the last 2 position is to receive internet support for the next two months.
The top six winning organizations were TOSE, Inzwi Revechidiki, The Big Conversation, Yellow Card, CommuTalk, and Pachedu Community Media Trust.
Winning galore at Media Start-Up Week
