m:lab East Africa will be holding its third Pivot East on 25th – 26th June 2013 in Kampala, Uganda. Pivot East is East Africa’s premier mobile start-ups pitching competition and conference which has been held annually since 2011. Pivot East is about catalysing the growth of mobile start-ups, with an aim to amplify and consolidate the gains of East Africa’s Mobile developer and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

A key objective for Pivot East 2013 is “to facilitate discovery of the next wave of high potential mobile start-ups”. The main difference between the 2013 competition and the previous years’ is its focus on start-ups becoming sustainable enterprises as opposed to merely showcasing mobile applications and their mobile developers. This is also in line with another key objective of Pivot East 2013 “To consolidate recent gains of the regional mobile ecosystem and help direct the thinking from mobile applications development to mobile entrepreneurship”.

The competition has five categories with each having five finalists pitching to a rich audience of Investors, Development Partners, Government Representatives, Telecoms Operators and other key industry players from East Africa and beyond. The categories include:

• Mobile Finance
• Mobile Enterprise
• Mobile Entertainment
• Mobile Society
• Mobile Utilities

The competition also gives companies the opportunity to showcase their mobile applications to Telecoms Operators, Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and the ICT community at large, and at the same time secure business incubation for their start-ups, virtually or physically at m:lab East Africa.

Some of the confirmed sponsors of Pivot East 2013 include Microsoft, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nokia, Intel, Facebook among others. In addition, other sponsors are encouraged to to join Pivot East 2013 to engage with East Africa’s mobile community.

Applications for Pivot East 2013 are now open at entries.pivoteast.com