The winner of the TC business Battlefield competition is TruQ, a logistics business that streamlines mid-mile logistics throughout Africa. The business beat out nine other contenders to win the ₦2.5 million cash prize. The social audio network Jamit came in second place and took home ₦1.5 million.
The tournament took place at the just ended Moonshot Conference TC flagship location. The goal of the Battlefield competition is to expose the innovations of regional startups to a worldwide audience. The inaugural iteration solely included Nigerian startups, such as the auto tech startup Flickwheel and the junior startup Stackjunior a platform for education; Powerful Technology Limited; the music cataloguing startup Royalty.io; the social audio network Jamit; the fintech startup Payslice; the money management platform Fless for small business owners; the food delivery startup Belarush; the logistics startup TruQ; and the growth-as-a-startup service Deepbux. .
Hope Dilthakanyane, investment principal at Founders Factory Africa, who also served as the panel’s chair, Nela Ekpenyong, head of portfolio at Ingressive Capital, Uwem Uwemakpan, head of investments at Launch Africa VC Fund II, and Gloria Okorie, venture partner at Republic, judged the competition.
Williams Fatayo, CEO of TruQ, commented on the victory, saying it is evidence of the hard work the firm is undertaking. TruQ has had success before; in 2023, the firm was awarded the Google Black Founders fund
The startup was also included in the V8 Growth Labs cohort and the Techstars 2022 accelerator. Fatayo claims that TruQ’s victory was in line with the startup’s seed funding round, which will be revealed in the next few days.
Ike Orizu, co-founder and CEO of Jamit, is pleased with the company’s victory and views it as validation of the group’s diligence and dedication to quality. Orizu stated that the funds will be reinvested in the business. . Beyond the monetary award, Orizu claims that Jamit has received more international attention and global recognition from both domestic and foreign audiences.
“The African podcaster’s platform, built with love from Africa, for African podcast listeners and creators” is how Stan Agbadugo and Ike Orizu describe Jamit, which they launched in 2018. The firm launched its first podcast in 2019, then moved on to producing and distributing podcasts before transforming into a podcast platform in 2020. The firm, according to Orizu, has worked with global heavyweights Dolby and Sony and currently has over 170 creators on its platform.