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Jamaican tech start-up wins PitchIT Caribbean 2017

Published:Tuesday | July 11, 2017 | 12:00 AM
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From left: A cameraman zooms in on the action as CEO of Kraasimages, Staysean Daley, discusses one of the pictures on display with Prime Minister of Jamaica, Hon. Andrew Holness and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group.
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The winners from left: Staysean Daley, Kraasimages (Jamaica); Heather Baker, Isle&Dine (Barbados); Elijah, The Local App (Antigua & Barbuda); Tamara Prosper, SENSI (Grenada); and Shriya, Nestd (Trinidad & Tobago).
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Kraasimages, an up-and-coming Jamaican stock imagery company, was named one of five winners from the 2017 PitchIT Caribbean Challenge.

The five companies were selected from a field of 25 finalists over two days of rigorous pitching to two panels and an audience of regional and global investors. The other winners were: SENSI (Grenada); Nestd (Trinidad & Tobago); Isle&Dine (Barbados); and The Local App (Antigua & Barbuda). Each received US$5,000 as seed money to further fund their business, as well as spots in PitchIT Caribbean business accelerators across the region.

A trained designer and Branson Centre of the Caribbean entrepreneur, CEO of Kraasimages, Staysean Daley, laughingly admits that she started Kraasimages because it is something the region needed and someone had to do it.

"Authentic Caribbean stock photos are difficult to source, and this makes a designer's job much more difficult," Daley says. She also pointed out that Krassimages offers more than picture-perfect images. "We aren't just selling pictures, we are curating the Caribbean's authentic culture and lifestyle and we want to amplify the conversation about the Caribbean's diversity and inclusion in media."

 

MARKET TO MATURITY

 

PitchIt's Chief Coach Sergiu Escobar, managing director of Canada's Founders Institute, also awarded Kraasimages, along with nDuna and LoanFren from Trinidad and Tobago, US$300 worth of budget access - the institute's online platform that helps entrepreneurs with budgeting.

PitchIT Caribbean aims to highlight and support the growth of the region's top talent in tech app development. It is designed to accelerate mobile app entrepreneurs from ideation to pitch, from pitch to market and from market to maturity.

PitchIT currently supports four hubs in Barbados, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad & Tobago. PitchIT Caribbean is a project of the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project, an initiative funded by the government of Canada and executed by infoDev/World Bank Group, through a three-party Caribbean consortium, led by UWI Consulting Inc, working along with Mona School of Business and Management, and Mona Business Support Services.

PitchIT Caribbean 2017 ended on June 17, 2017, in St Kitts and Nevis.