YAKWETU™ Named first-ever Winner from Africa, and Creative Industry, at WIPO Global Awards!

MEDIA RELEASE:

YAKWETU™ Named first-ever Winner from Africa, and Creative Industry, at WIPO Global Awards!

GENEVA, 11th July 2023: Kenyan Entertainment Technology Start-up - YAKWETU™ Online Limited, has today been honoured as 1 of the 7 Winners of the 2023 WIPO Global Awards, at the 64th General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

Now in its second year, the WIPO Global Awards recognises small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from around the globe, that are successfully commercialising their IP-backed innovation and creativity in an exceptional manner, that also improves society.

YAKWETU™ has emerged as 1 of the 7 Winners from 548 Submissions and 25 Finalists – from 16 Countries and from Industries like creative, food, green technology, health & more, for its first service https://app.mymovies.africa.

“YAKWETU™ in Kiswahili means both ‘Of Us’ and ‘For Us’. We chose this Name, because it Articulates our Purpose of Making Available digital Content for Entertainment & Education - from Africans, to Africans; while Protecting it from its greatest Threat - Piracy, and Monetising it Equitably for the Creators. YAKWETU™ is deeply honoured to be the first African company, and first from the Creative Industry globally, to receive this Award from WIPO”, said Mike Strano, Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer, at the Ceremony. “I would like to Thank the thousands of Customers on our first service - MyMovies.Africa™ in The Motherland & her Diaspora, our Content Creators & Partners for believing in us, our very talented & dedicated Staff, our generous Board of Advisors & Directors and my Co-Founder – Trushna Buddhdev-Patel. To you all I say Ubuntu – We are, because You are. Asanteni sana.”

This announcement follows an October 2021 recognition, when YAKWETU™ was 1 of 5 (from over 200 applications) admitted to the 2nd Cohort in Kenya of the Next INnovation with JApan (NINJA) Accelerator; which concluded with the Launch of their Fundraising in January 2022.

WIPO Global Award winners will receive a customised 1:1 mentoring package to bolster their IP strategies, including funding facilitation, partnership opportunities and publicity support.

ENDS.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1). More about WIPO Global Award 2023:

Background: WIPO Global Awards

Recording of the Ceremony: https://webcast.wipo.int/home

Clip of YAKWETU™ Acceptance Speech:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljy8x4dfpl4ibpy/Kenya%20Global%20Award_1.mp4?dl=0

Photos of the Ceremony: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wipo/albums/72177720309687240

2). More about YAKWETU™ Online Limited:

Meaning both "Of Us" and "For Us" in Kiswahili (the most popular African language), YAKWETU™ is an Entertainment Technology company that’s innovatively disrupting the 95-99% Piracy-dominated distribution channel of digital content in Kenya, with plans for the rest of Africa and other developing Countries.

Its proprietary online Home Entertainment & Edutainment system has taken proactive measures to Protect and Monetise the Intellectual Property (IP) of its Content Partners.

Released on 26th September 2019, their Poof-of-Concept is MyMovies.Africa™, as a Mobile-first Digital Cinema Extension, offering securely Encrypted original Movies from Africa (i.e. New Releases, Classics, Features, Shorts, Animations, Documentaries, etc) on Smart Devices, across Africa and to her Diaspora, in 195 Countries.

MyMovies.Africa™ features Premium Video On Demand – PVOD (#RentFor2Days) for New Releases, Transactional Video On Demand – TVOD (#RentFor7Days), Electronic Sell Through – EST (#OwnForLife) purchase and Watch Parties via ZOOM, all Accessed here: https://app.mymovies.africa

YAKWETU™ is adapting this proprietary technology to securely Retail other Digital Content from Africa, while also modernising existing Value Chains.

More information here: https://media.yakwetu.africa and https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f2X6AyKblObb6p0QAbLZm0tpAFUbOI7o/view

Caption for ‘Company Photo’:

Back Row (Left to Right): Peter Kimani – Fullstack Developer, Mike Strano – Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer, Gideon Warui – Data Engineer, Jackson Kitsao – Lead Fullstack Engineer, and Brian Singor’a – Growth Advisor.

Front Row (Left to Right): Esther Ogutu – Data Scientist, Brian Waweru – Development Lead, Denis Muriithi – Intern, Brandon Temba – Content Assistant, Trushna Buddhdev-Patel – Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, and James Mwenda – Finance & Administration Manager.

Remote: Nosakhare Osagiede – Fullstack Developer.