Nandimobile Ltd, a technology startup co-founded by three graduates of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), was granted the “Best Business” award at the LAUNCH Conference in San Francisco, where more than 100 startups from around the world presented and debuted their products and services.
Nandimobile, located in Accra, Ghana, provides mobile solutions for customer support and marketing. The company was founded in July 2010 by Edward Tagoe, Anne Amuzu and Michael Dakwa, and is supported by the Meltwater Foundation, which is funded by the Meltwater Group. Nandimobile’s on-demand Software as a Service suite, Nandiclient, arms businesses with tools for delivering customer support and information services to mobile phones of customers through SMS and WAP channels. The suite includesa customer support service, Gripeline, and a marketing service, Infoline.
“The judges thought Gripeline was elegant and solved a real problem,” said Jason Calacanis, founder of LAUNCH. “Every mobile phone has the ability to text, but not every restaurant or store has the ability to easily receive them. It was refreshing to see a solution that wasn’t based on a developer spending $75,000 to build an iPhone app that required five steps to use –
not to mention a $1,500 commitment a year from consumers.”
“We are honored to receive this award and that we had the opportunity to showcase our product at the LAUNCH Conference,” said Anne Amuzu, chief executive officer of Nandimobile. “We are eager to continue to perfect our offering and build our customer base in Africa and internationally.”
“Sometimes people speak of SMS as a lesser platform but I actually think it’s the ideal platform for this service because it’s global,”
said Chris Sacca, venture investor and company advisor to Nandimobile at the LAUNCH Conference. “I think people who have attempted this concept have made it too complicated with separate apps and platforms, and I think SMS is exactly the way to do it. Excellent.”
“Nandimobile’s recognition at last week’s LAUNCH Conference further exemplifies the talent and potential of MEST graduates,” said Jorn Lyseggen, CEO and founder of Meltwater Group. “Meltwater is proud to continue to support the ventures of young African entrepreneurs like Nandimobile.”
About MEST
The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology is a non-profit training and mentoring program created to help young Africans to become software entrepreneurs. Founded in 2008, MEST aims to provide its students with the skills required to establish software companies in the global marketplace and thereby creating jobs and wealth locally in Africa.
Students receive two years of fully sponsored training in software development, business fundamentals and entrepreneurship. MEST also administrates an incubator and a seed fund dedicated to help the MEST graduates convert their business ideas into viable companies in the global marketplace. The MEST program is fully funded by the Meltwater Foundation. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.org/
About Meltwater Foundation
The Meltwater Foundation is the non-profit arm of Meltwater Group. Since its start in January 2007, it has launched the MEST program (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology) in Accra, Ghana, dedicated to the encouragement and training of budding African software entrepreneurs. The Meltwater Foundation is fully funded by the Meltwater Group. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.org/about/
About Meltwater Group
The Meltwater Group is a privately held software company founded in Norway in 2001, serving more than 18,000 clients through 55 offices located across North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. Meltwater is committed to challenging existing business models by introducing disruptive technologies. The Meltwater Group delivers B2B solutions based on search engine technology, cloud computing and talent management software. For more information, please visit http://www.meltwater.com.