UPDEV CHALLENGE

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Each year, the startup Uptodate Developers celebrates the innovation of young Congolese entrepreneurs by organizing a competition which rewards the 3 best innovative ideas in new information and communication technologies.

UPDEV CHALLENGE is a competition bringing together young people aged 16 to 26 with a

innovative project and rewarding financially and / or technically the 3 projects deemed most innovative in technology (ICT) by the judges.

For each edition of the Updev Challenge competition, we will celebrate the innovation of young Congolese Tech-entrepreneurs under a specific theme.

On the day of the award ceremony, the importance of approaches to promoting NICTs (New Information and Communication Technologies) to young people is always underlined by distinguished panelists who will be revealed later.

We welcome you to this 3rd edition of the Updev Challenge competition with its slogan:

''Innovate for development and win an award''

After a successful first and second edition, here comes the third which will be physical and virtual in order to encourage Congolese to familiarize themselves with an increasingly virtual world, especially with cardano blockchain.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

This event allow student entrepreneurs to appeal their ideas to the world and provide them

opportunities to connect with engineers and investors.

Student entrepreneurs in the DRC, often suffer from a lack of access to resources, whether it be shortages of financial resources, team or mentoring resources.

THIS EDITION OF UPDEV CHALLENGE (2022) :

Unlike the first and second edition, for this third edition registrations will be free.

At the end of the registration period, registrants will have a defined period during which the public will comment on their projects anonymously, in order to allow them to correct and improve them before the pre-selection stage.

Other differences with previous editions is that during this edition :

- a target audience will participate in the refinement of the candidates' projects thanks to their comments and suggestions.

- Projects who will include cardano blockchain technology will be incubate in our company (UPDEV) for coaching

At the end of this period open to the target audience, the Updev Challenge team will take record time to refine the various projects and keep only 20 for the pre-selection stage. 

The pre-selection judges will thus take record time to pre-select, on the basis of the predefined criteria, the 10 best projects to be selected to be presented to the judges during the final.

OBJECTIVE :

The objective of this competition is to first unearth different ideas, different solutions to the problems of our country, of Africa, in order to provide solutions, and to have as many possible solutions "made in DRC". .

Secondly, it is to give the chance to these young people with innovative ideas to have a minimum of support so that their ideas are implemented.

The vision is to give the winner the chance to exploit their potential, by providing them with the appropriate framework, equipment and environment.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The biggest risk that could prevent us from carrying out this project is the lack of funding. We have a dedicated team with the capabilities and skills to organize this competition, proof of this is that we have already organized two editions, this being the third.

If for this edition we do not have funding, it will be very difficult for us to organize this competition, especially because it is difficult to find funding locally (DRC) given that the BLOCKCHAIN concept is not yet well known, or at least not known at all by local businesses.

It therefore goes without saying that local companies do not finance it since they do not understand this new concept which has been integrated into this edition, THE BLOCKCHAIN CARDANO

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

CONTEST PROCEDURE :

• Slogan: "Innovate for development and win an award"
• Location: GOMA/Great Hall ISIG/Goma
• Registration: From August 1 to 30, 2022 on www.updevchallenge.com
• Screening of applications: From September 1 to 4, 2022
• Preselection: From September 5 to 11, 2022
• Reformulation of the projects of the first 10: From September 12 to 25, 2022
• Selection and closing ceremony: Saturday, October 1, 2022

2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.: Pitch of the 10 candidates

4:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.: Panel

4:45 – 5:00 p.m.: Word from the Gold Sponsors

5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Announcement and Award Ceremony

5:00 p.m. – ...: Cocktail and Networking

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

ORGANIZATION OF THE EVENT:

• Room rental : 1000 USD
• Refreshments: 350 USD
• Sound system : 200 USD
• Ceremonial Stewart : 100 USD
• Social networks and media promotion: 200 USD
• Printing T-Shirts(50): 500 USD
• Back drop printing(1): 350 USD

WINNERS PRIZES IN ADA:

• Financial:

1st: 1000 USD (ADA)

2nd: 500 USD (ADA)

3rd: 300 USD (ADA)

• Materials (3 computers for the 3 first runner up): 1500 USD

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

1. AVAILABLE TEAM

• Uptodate Developers

Uptodate Developers is a startup working in the promotion of new information and communication technologies under two aspects: By designing adapted solutions that contribute to the resolution of social problems and by promoting technology to young people. We train developers to understand customers problems, so that our team can suggest IT Software as part of the solution to the problems. We have two type of developers : Permanent and Freelances. When a project need skills that our permanent developers have, we hire freelances.

• Dan Baruka

Project leader

CEO of Uptodate Developers. 

Entrepreneur and Blockchain developer, Dan baruka is a software engineer and technology entrepreneur based in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo). He is the co-founder of the startup Uptodate Developers, which brings together young people working in new information and communication technologies. Its objective is to contribute to positively change Africa by using new technologies in entrepreneurship to contribute to the resolution of Africa's problems.

Languages : French & English

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-baruka-6a3423188

• Frédérique Samvura

Blockchain developer

Wada Business Initiatives Lead, DRC Wada Coordinator. M.A in Economics, experienced in banking and public policy. Completed the Plutus Pioneer and Atala Prism Pioneer Programs. Haskell and Plutus trainer in Wada and Guimbalabs Education programs, Smart Contract Developer and entrepreneur. 

Languages : French & English

(https://www.linkedin.com/in/fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-samvura-907aa53b)

• Josephine Ndeze

Team Leader | Chef Operating Officer

COO at Uptodate Developers and Blockchain entrepreneur. Software engineer, Tech entrepreneur in Kinshasa (DR-Congo), Mandela washington fellowship Allumi 2022 | The Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Ambassador (2019-2021) | MissGeekAfrca 2019.

Languages : French & English

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephine-ndeze-54115b188/?originalSubdomain=cd

Priscille Bampata

Regional project Coordinator at UPDEV | Administrative

Coordinator at Uptodate Developers, passionate about new information and communication technology, medicine and management.

Languages : French & English

https://cd.linkedin.com/in/priscille-bampata-1b4a76224

Vital yengayenga 

Community Manager | RS content strategy

Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, User Experience Design (UX), Copywriting, Copywriting, User Experience Writing, Content Strategy, Blog

Languages : French | English

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vital-yengayenga/

2.TEAM TO HIRE

• Latouifa Fetafeta

Cameraman and videos producer.

Freelance Editor and cameraman at Nyiragongo Ngoma Production, SARL

Language : French 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/latouifa-fetafeta-b7ba49160/

• Blaise P. Irenge

Photojournalist and Corporate Consultant.

Experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Skilled in Strategic Planning, Microsoft Office, Management, Business Strategy, and Marketing. Strong business development professional with a Certificat formation focused on Business and Entrepreneurship from Global Touch Corporate DRC. Professional photographe and consulting in Kivu Entrepreneurs.

Language : French & English

https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaise-p-irenge-7b8b85133/

3.PARTENARIAT A SIGNER

INGENIOUS CITY

Professional training and coaching

Ingenious City is an incubator platform and a co-working space which aims to bring together, in one place, all the actors of entrepreneurship in the DRC.

Language : French & English

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ingenious-city/

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

If we are funded, we will come back to catalyst because this project is a competition that we organize annually. We would like CARDANO to be an official sponsor. This will make it possible to give prizes each year to the best technological solutions that manage to implement the concept of Blockchain in their projects.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Organization of all the stages of this 3rd edition of the UPDEV CHALLENGE technological project competition, which aims to find the best innovative projects integrating Blockchain technology to provide resources (Financial, material and intellectual).

 We will measure by following the first 3 projects will be incubated in our company.

We will ensure that during this first Year (Between two competitions), the winning projects present prototypes integrating the Cardano Blockchain on the basis of the resources they have received. They will start by learning more about the Blockchain concept through the resources we have available on Youtube.

The evolution of these projects could be followed on the updevchallenge.com platform which will update the evolution of the winners of each edition.

We will also publish information about it on our social networks.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

• Candidates will be able, during the preparation period for their projects, to learn more about the Blockchain Cardano thanks to the content that is already available to them on Youtube. This will allow them to understand the concept and integrate it into their projects as part of the solution to the problems they seek to solve.

• At the end of the competition, the winners will obtain the resources that will allow them to develop prototypes to be tested and used. We will therefore have the possibility of having 3 different prototypes for a Year, prototypes to be tested and presented before the next edition of this competition.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

It's a new project.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

SDG subgoals:

9.b Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

9.b.1 Proportion of medium and high-tech industry value added in total value added

#proposertoolsdg