Anambra State student has made it to the finals of the 2023 TechCrunch Disrupt company competition at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco, United States.
TechCrunch, a media company based in San Francisco, stated this on its website recently. It also said that Foris Labs and the other finalists were chosen from about 3,000 entries worldwide.
Michael Arrington and Keith Teare, partners at Archimedes Ventures, founded TechCrunch in June 2005.
In 2010, AOL paid about $25 million to buy the company.
As of 2013, TechCrunch was offered in English, Chinese (by a Chinese tech news company, TechNode), and Japanese.
In October 2012, TechCrunch France was added to the leading TechCrunch.com site. As part of its “global strategy,” Boundless (formerly Verizon Media Japan), the parent company of TechCrunch, will close TechCrunch Japan in May 2022.
Read also: MEST Africa opens applications for startup pitch competition
TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200
The event, called “TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200,” will take place at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco, United States, from September 19 to September 21.
The organizers said that this year’s event will introduce game-changing technologies and talk about what’s on the minds of the tech industry’s top thinkers. The event is the world’s best place to learn about revolutionary startups.
“Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 brings together the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans online and in person for interviews, demos, Startup Battlefield 200, networking, and more,” it said.
John Onuigbo is the co-founder and CEO of Foris Labs. He said, “We are honored that the team at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 chose to highlight this support.
“It shows how important this project is and makes us more determined. At Foris Labs, we are using technology to change the way science is taught and make learning more accessible and more fun for kids in Africa.
“The technology creates a setting that looks like a real science lab. This lets students do science experiments independently or in groups using mobile devices or desktops.
“They use it in schools all over Anambra State as part of their beta testing phase. They have already done close user group testing with high school students, which went well.”
PharmaRun wins the $10,000 major prize at Pitch2Win competition
About Foris Labs Co-Founder
Foris Labs is an app-based platform that gives students a safe and interactive lab environment. It creates a virtual learning space where students can do science projects independently or in groups while interacting with each other through their phones.
It is made with lab experiments well-suited to the different classes in the West African school system. Its main goal is to make practical lessons fun and easy for students.
Project-focused schoolteacher and social entrepreneur John Onuigbo has experience managing projects. He spent years creating stringent management, implementation, and monitoring plans for 100%-profit EdTech enterprises while brainstorming and testing solutions to vulnerable areas’ most significant educational issues.
He established Foris Labs, a metaverse-based virtual scientific lab for Nigerian science students, during a pandemic. This startup was named one of the top three Nigerian edtech startups in 2021 by the Global Edtech Startup Awards. It earned the 2021 Stanford Centre for Longevity Design Challenge global first-place prize, beating Harvard Kennedy College, Kings College London, Northwestern University, and others.
Stemnovo Ng offers STEM education to rural and semi-urban youth in Southeastern Nigeria, teaching them to code, construct robots, and start businesses. Workshops, tech boot camps, community projects, and exhibitions teach them these skills.
John received the 2019–2020 US Embassy in Nigeria Teacher Achievement Award. Winner of Airtel Touching Lives; Lagos Creative Enterprise Hub Fellow; Injini Africa Fellow; Injini West Africa pitch day winner; British High Commission in Nigeria HeforShe Champion; West African Citizens’ Choice Awards 2018; Regional Universities Forum Top 20 Young African Innovators Award 2022