Three MENA developers win Facebook’s Bots for Messenger Developer Challenge

Facebook has announced the three winners of its Facebook’s Bots for Messenger Developer Challenge, launched earlier this year.

The social media company made the announcement on Monday. The selected winners, from the Middle East and North Africa, have competed against startups from across 64 countries and have each won $20 000 and three months of mentorship from Facebook. The challenge was launched on 15 February.

“It’s been nearly five months since we first invited submissions for the 2017 Bots for Messenger Challenge and we’re excited to share the winners,” said Emeka Afigbo, Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships for the Middle East and Africa in a press release.

In addition to the winners, the runners-up in each category have received $10 000 and three months of mentorship from the social media giant.

‘The winners have each won $20 000 and three months of mentorship’

The winners and runners-up from each category are as follows:

Gaming and Entertainment

Winner: Trivoxx, a Moroccan company, that allows a person or group to test their general knowledge.

Runner-up: Mastermind Games Bot, an Egyptian developer which has created a collection of five interactive code-solving games.

Productivity and Utility

Winner: Mr Ink, another Egyptian developer allows its users to capture an image of a book to obtain information regarding it.

Runner-up: Evii, a Jordan startup helps its customers to order and collect food via its bot.

Social Good

Winner: MathNook, is also an Egyptian startup which aims to help people increase their math solving skills by helping its users solve complex problems it also gives its users the ability to search for various math courses on YouTube.

Runner-up: Adam 9 Months, which is also an Egyptian startup, aims to create a supportive community for pregnant women using tools and guidance between community leaders.

“We congratulate all the winners, wish them luck and thank all of the participants for making the Bots for Messenger Challenge a success. We look forward to seeing these bots continue to evolve into strong services for their communities,” said Afigbo.