Acecore, a Nigerian startup that builds home energy storage systems, received TC Battlefield 2026 at Moonshot by TechCabal in Lagos on Thursday, October 29, taking house the $10,000 grand prize.
Supplya, which provides informal retailers stock on credit, got here second and received $5,000. Navidyn, a maritime robotics startup, got here third with $2,500.
Caleb Iwuoha, Acecore’s founder and chief government, advised the judges at Wednesday’s ultimate that the system’s casing and battery administration software program had been “all built here in Nigeria by our very own hands.”
Acecore sells a house battery system and a wise socket that lets customers management their home equipment. It says its system prices greater than 20% lower than comparable merchandise, and a accomplice financial institution lets clients pay in instalments
The startup is constructing regionally in a market that imports most of its energy {hardware}. Nigeria imported 1,721 megawatts of photo voltaic panels from China within the 12 months to June 2025, making it Africa’s second-largest importer after South Africa, in line with the power suppose tank Ember.
The three winners had been chosen from 10 finalists that additionally included Growwr, Kuraway, Fertitude, Lena, QiqiFarms, Riwe and Swiftway Shippers. The judges had been Folakemi Osho, normal supervisor of HoaQ; Elijah Shokenu, head of ventures at SWIT; Kosen Kenta, principal at Antler; and Adeniyi Adebayo, chief enterprise officer of Yango Group, which sponsored the competitors.
Acecore confronted the hardest questions on worth. One decide identified that imported Chinese methods land in Nigeria at a worth just like Acecore’s, which begins at about $5,250, and pressed Iwuoha on his unit economics. He mentioned the corporate runs a 62% margin.
Navidyn, which builds underwater robots to examine offshore oil and gasoline websites, made the broader case for {hardware}. “So far, Africa has invested in fintech, logtech, agritech, edtech. Now it’s time to invest in advanced AI and robotics,” its co-founders advised the judges. The startup says a Sahara Group consultant introduced it a $5,000 inspection job earlier than its product was prepared.
Supplya, the runner-up, says it has prolonged greater than $150,000 in credit score to small outlets since October 2024, and that 98% has been repaid.
Navidyn and Supplya, alongside with the ladies’s well being app Fertitude, additionally received locations in Antler’s residency programme, the place they will elevate as much as $250,000 in pre-seed funding.
Two of this yr’s three podium spots went to startups constructing bodily merchandise in Nigeria, a slower and costlier path than software program. If Acecore and Navidyn can maintain their margins towards imports, they may present traders that {hardware} made in Nigeria can compete on worth in addition to on story.
