{"id":3607,"date":"2025-11-27T16:06:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/?p=3607"},"modified":"2025-11-27T16:06:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:06:51","slug":"innovators-shine-zenith-tech-fair-5-0-awards-%e2%82%a6140-million-to-africas-brightest-tech-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/?p=3607","title":{"rendered":"Innovators Shine: Zenith Tech Fair 5.0 Awards \u20a6140 Million to Africa\u2019s Brightest Tech Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Lagos \u2014 In a landmark reaffirmation of its commitment to Africa\u2019s digital future, Zenith Bank has awarded \u20a6140 million in cash prizes to ten promising innovators during the fifth edition of its annual Zenith Tech Fair. The event \u2014 themed \u201cFuture Forward 5.0: Tech for Success \u2013 Innovate, Adapt, Accelerate\u201d<\/a><\/em> \u2014 was held on November 20, 2025, at the Eko Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2025 fair introduced an expanded dual-competition format combining a high-stakes Hackathon and a Startup Pitch Competition \u2014 pulling in over 2,000 participants from across Africa, including developers, entrepreneurs and startup founders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the close of the competition, two standout winners each claimed top prizes of \u20a630 million. In the Hackathon category, Trust Loop triumphed with a digital solution offering seamless KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and liveness-verification capability \u2014 a critical tool for secure onboarding and identity verification in fintech. Meanwhile, in the Startup Pitch contest, Cubbes Technologies Limited took the lead with its AI-powered EdTech platform designed to boost learning outcomes and career readiness for university students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remaining eight finalists \u2014 Venille Ltd, Sowota, FLOW, InvoPay, Zenith Intelliscore, The Very Hacked Men, Konfam and Zerax \u2014 each received \u20a610 million in non-dilutive funding. All ten winners will also benefit from a six-week mentorship and incubation programme slated to run from December 2025 through February 2026, aimed at helping the teams refine and scale their solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the event, Zenith Bank\u2019s Group Managing Director\/CEO, Adaora Umeoji, expressed gratitude to the founder and chairman, Jim Ovia, for his \u201cvisionary foresight\u201d in launching the Tech Fair \u2014 a platform that has over time helped nurture Africa\u2019s tech talent and foster innovation. She stressed that given the pace of technological advancement, the next major breakthrough could come \u201cfrom any one of you in this room today.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his own remarks, Jim Ovia reiterated the bank\u2019s long-term mission to empower young Africans through technology, envisioning a future where the continent produces global tech giants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By supporting innovators with funding, mentorship and global exposure, Zenith Tech Fair 5.0 has underscored the critical role of private-sector leadership in accelerating Africa\u2019s digital transformation. For many of these startups, the cash prize and incubation opportunity could mark the beginning of a journey toward scalable, impactful solutions across fintech, education, identity verification and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lagos \u2014 In a landmark reaffirmation of its commitment to Africa\u2019s digital future, Zenith Bank has awarded \u20a6140 million in cash prizes to ten promising innovators during the fifth edition of its annual Zenith Tech Fair. The event \u2014 themed \u201cFuture Forward 5.0: Tech for Success \u2013 Innovate, Adapt, Accelerate\u201d \u2014 was held on November…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3609,"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3607\/revisions\/3609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techstream.africa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}