Electric vehicles, organic vegetables that last 6 months, and a cooling roof battle for N10m in episode 9 ‘The Pitch’

The ninth episode of ‘The Pitch’ Season 1 opens with two of the judges, Lynxx and Gbubemi Atimomo revealing their expectations from the new set of young entrepreneurs that will be pitching their businesses for a chance of getting a N10million loan.

The Pitch episode 9 sees four young entrepreneurs pitching businesses that include a rooftop invention that will replace the use of AC units, a fish farming expansion project, production of vegetables and Agro products that can last six months, and the production of electric vehicles.

As is the norm, the four entrepreneurs were given three minutes each to explain their business models and payment models to Ekaete Augustine Edet of Austine & Fortune Hotel Management Services, Lynxxx, an artist, web and graphic designer, Ikenna Nnoli of Pine Street Capital, and Gbubemi Atimomo of Business in Tandem.

McDonald Emenike was the first to go up. The young CEO of Procorr is an innovator with a passion for global warming. In his three minutes presentation, Emenike explained how his company has come up with a solution to replace air conditioning units with a mineral roof paint. He also explained how he intends to sell his products and repay the N10million loan in just three years. Considering that there are expected to be over 5 billion air conditioning units in the next three decades as a result of global warming, it’s easy to see why Emenike’s pitch excited the judges.

'The Pitch' Judges. [Instagram/posh_professionals] Pulse Nigeria

Abiodun Kasali, a grassroots farmer seeking to scale up his catfish business was the second person to pitch his business. In less than two minutes, Kasali was done with his presentation of trying to convince the judges to grant him N5million to enlarge his fish farming business. However, he was caught unawares when one of the judges, Ikenna Nnoli of Pine Street Capital, requested to see at least a fish from Kasali’s farm as well as the high quality feeds that the fishes consume. His lack of preparedness led to a memorable quote from the judges: “if you fail to pitch, you pitch to fail”.

Idoko Blessing, the CEO of Fabulous Agro live products, came in ‘prepared’ and began her presentation almost immediately after her time began to tick. Idoko explained why her business, which deals in sales of fresh vegetables and other Agro products that can keep its nutrients for up to six months, should get funding. Summing up her presentation, Idoko is seeking N10million interest-free loan that would be used in procuring industrial machines to grow her business and intends to pay back in three years.

Chukwunonso Osakwe, a budding engineer, takes the fourth spot to make his presentation for the judges. With a daring pitch, Osakwe hopes to get a funding of N10million to build electric vehicles - tricycles, motorcycles, and quadricycles for use of Nigerian commuters. Osakwe and his team of engineers are hoping to get the loan to make history by putting Nigeria on the map of countries manufacturing electric vehicles.

After the presentation by the four entrepreneurs, we believe the judges, who were hopeful at the beginning of this episode, sure had their mind blown.

“I’m expecting to see confidence, knowledge about the business, good financial plan and forecast for how they intend to spend the money and how they intend to pay back the money,” were the words of Lynxx at the beginning of the show.

‘The Pitch’ allows budding entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas to established corporate world giants. The top Pitch will then be funded with the sum of N10 million from Sterling Bank to expand its businesses.

After each pitch, the established corporate gurus discuss and decide on the viability of the businesses with a mindset of repayment plan for the fund, which is a loan and not a grant.

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