L-R - Thomas Kioko of Easy Parking, Robert Rudin - Ericsson Kenya MD and Nick Hargreaves of Tokelezea
The competition was part of the global 2013 Ericsson Application Awards, and intended to promote the development of innovative ideas and mobile applications to address situations particular to urban centres across the region.
The competition was won by Senegalese team Shinsekai, for an app to support environmental sanitation and hygiene development in cities.
The five developers in the two Kenyan teams received an ASUS Transformer Pad tablet each from Ericsson Kenya managing director Robert Rudin, who said the company had set its focus on making an impact in Kenya and the region by creating solutions to improve lives.
He commended Kenya for its zeal in innovation, with over 30 per cent of the competition applications coming from the country.
“The rate of IT innovation in Kenya is very commendable. In the 2013 edition of the Ericsson Application Awards, one third of the entries of the sub-Saharan contenders came from Kenya,” said Rudin.
Tokelezea, meaning ‘Get Out’, created an app that helps people find fun things happening in their surroundings, while second runners-up Easy Parking’s app allows people to find a spot to park their car, thereby reducing greenhouse emissions as people look for parking in cities.
In an interview with HumanIPO the Easy Parking founders confirmed they are currently building the prototype for a parking sensor and seeking investors to fund the rollout of their system.
“We are currently working on the prototype of the parking sensor as the mobile app is working and once we have that one working we can link it together with the mobile app and demonstrate how the whole procedure will work,” said Trevor Kioko, one of the developers.
