Accelerating Tech Entrepreneurship

Two UWI Alumna are among an all-female group of winners of PitchIT Caribbean, a Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurship Competition. The programme aims to enhance mobile app development within CARICOM, helping to accelerate mobile app entrepreneurs through the startup life cycle, from ideation to pitch, from pitch to market and from market to maturity.

Trinidadian, Kelly-Ann Bethel of SKED (an alumna of both the St. Augustine and Cave Hill campuses), and Jamaican, Monique Powell of QuickPlate (an alumna of the Mona Campus) were among the top five developers who destroyed the stereotype of male dominance in the field. Each received US$5000, in seed funding to develop their businesses. They have also been awarded spots in PitchIT Caribbean business accelerators across the region.

Winning teams from the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge competition show off their US$5,000 prizes for finishing in the top five following two days of competition in Port of Spain, Trinidad from December 2-3, 2016. From left: Danielle Tait of The Interview JM from Jamaica, Kelly-Ann Bethel of SKED from Trinidad & Tobago; Ayana St. Louis of D Carnival Scene from Trinidad & Tobago; Karlene Francis, World Bank's Programme Officer of the Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC); Nerissa Greenway representing IndeTours from Montserrat and Monique Powell of QuickPlate, Jamaica. Winning teams from the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge competition show off their US$5,000 prizes for finishing in the top five following two days of competition in Port of Spain, Trinidad from December 2-3, 2016. From left: Danielle Tait of The Interview JM from Jamaica, Kelly-Ann Bethel of SKED from Trinidad & Tobago; Ayana St. Louis of D Carnival Scene from Trinidad & Tobago; Karlene Francis, World Bank's Programme Officer of the Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC); Nerissa Greenway representing IndeTours from Montserrat and Monique Powell of QuickPlate, Jamaica.

PitchIT is the central operation of the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project (CMIP), which is part of the Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC). In turn, EPIC is 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 The Mona School of Business and Management, and Mona Business Support Services.

The effort is a prime example of the power ofcollaboration between The UWI and its international partners, who share the University's objective of a more diverse, globally marketable technological sector within the Caribbean.