Last night, major South African telecom MTN announced the winners of the annual App of the Year Awards. Ranging from big business to lean startups, winners in a number of categories were recognised, including the prestigious Business App of the Year Award.
Some local apps that shone at the annual competition include WumDrop, Vula Mobile, EskomSePush and M4JAM.
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The judging panel consisted of industry experts Jonathan Hoehler, Kobus Ehlers, Liron Segev, Nafisa Akabor, Tanya Kovarsky, and Andile Khumalo.
WumDrop, an application allowing users to summon a courier at R12 per kilometer, took home the award for the Best Enterprise App & Best Overall App of 2015. The application is available on web, iOS, and Android.
Founded by Simon Hartley and Roy Borole, WumDrop launched its Android app in May 2014 after which the startup experienced exponential monthly growth. In April this year, it debuted its iOS app.
WumDrop walks away with R200 000-worth in prize money as well as the prestigious title of MTN’s App of 2015. Last year, vehicle inspection app Live Inspect was named the winner, while the popular mobile payments platform, SnapScan, secured the title in 2013.
Read more: From diapers to grilled cheese: WumDrop’s curious on-demand courier service takes on SA
Hartley tells Ventureburn that winning the award is perfect timing as WumDrop just raised a new round of funding to scale up its in-house development capacity:
Despite having raised a sizeable amount at a healthy valuation, it’s still very difficult for a business of our age and size to compete with the average cost-to-company salary available to developers in Cape Town or Stellenbosch, where our dev team is based.
On how such a lean startup managed to develop an award-winning app, Hartley notes that WumDrop manages to compete with larger businesses by offering share options to key members of the team. One way of selling share options to prospective hires is through great PR gained by winning events like the MTN App of the Year Awards.
Competing with the likes of WeChat’s Picup, WumDrop is currently expanding its development team to build new “game-changing” products. Details of the new funding round will be made public in the coming weeks.
Read more: Here’s all you need to know about WeChat’s new on-demand courier startup Picup
As listed on the website, below are the final results of MTN App of the Year Award 2015:
- Most Innovative App: VulaMobile, an application geared towards XYZ.
- Best Consumer App: DStv Now, an app that lets DStv Premium customers watch shows, movies and sports on their mobile.
- Business App of the Year & Best Enterprise App: WumDrop, an on-demand courier service.
- Best Enterprise Development App: CPUT Mobile, an app for students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to stay up-to-date with all campus news and happenings.
- Best Breakthrough Developer App & People’s choice Award: EskomSePush, an app that gives users push notifications about power outages in South Africa.
- Best Wild Card App: M4JAM, an app that enables people to complete micro tasks in exchange for cash.
