Jamaican Entrepreneur wins US State Dept Prize
Jamaican entrepreneur and ListenMi Caribbean founder Kenia Mattis has won the international Spark the Fire Pitch Startup Competition, hosted by the U.S. State Department. From over 10,000 applicants, ListenMiCaribbean has selected as one of the three finalists for the global prize. The award was presented this past week at the seventh annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2016, held in Silicon Valley, CA.
ListenMi Caribbean is a digital media production company producing educational and entertaining content for children, specializing in creating narrative that highlight and celebrate Caribbean history and culture. For winning the competition, her company will receive US$15,000, US$1,000 AirBnB credit and the opportunity to pitch directly to some of the top venture capitalists and angel investors in America.
The Spark the Fire pitch competition, organized by the Global Entrepreneurship Network is designed to help emerging entrepreneurs from around the world seek investment, as well as start and scale their venture. Four other Jamaican entrepreneurs also participated, including Patria-Kaye Aarons, Sweetie Confectionary, founded in 2013, Nichole Crawford-Thompson, Co-founder and CEO of Niritech Limited, founded in 2014, and Yaneek Page, Founder and CEO of The Innovators School Clubs, founded in 2015. During the summit, entrepreneurs engaged in workshops, panels, ignite talks, pitch competitions, mentoring, and networking sessions aimed at building their entrepreneurial skills.
The Global Entrepreneurship Summit showcases and inspires entrepreneurs and investors from around the world to create new opportunities for investment, partnership, and collaboration; connect American entrepreneurs and investors with international counterparts to form lasting relationships; and highlight entrepreneurship as means to address some of the most intractable global challenges.
