Month: May 2023

The Fifth Third Bank Financial Empowerment Mobile (eBus) continued its tour in Southwest Ohio in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Avondale, one of its nine Empowering Black Futures neighborhoods on Friday, April 21, 2023 from 3-7 p.m. The eBus was part of the Avondale Empowerment Day in partnership with the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, Avondale Development Corporation, The Community Builders and other community partners.

Fifth Third’s eBus is a mobile financial classroom on wheels and is free for the community. Equipped with desktops and Wi-Fi, the bus is staffed by Fifth Third bankers who are on board to offer assistance with reviewing credit reports, one-on-one financial counseling, financial and homebuyer education, job search assistance and help accessing Fifth Third products and services.

“We are committed to improving the lives of our customers and financially empowering the communities we serve,” said Kala Gibson, executive vice president and chief corporate responsibility officer for Fifth Third Bank. “The eBus allows us to meet people at every age and stage of life where they live and work to provide the knowledge and tools to help them take control of their financial futures.”

“The Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio was pleased to host Avondale Empowerment Day in collaboration with Fifth Third Bank, the Avondale Development Corporation, The Community Builders, and our community partner agencies,” said Christie Bryant Kuhns, President and CEO, Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio. “All are united by our mutual commitment to empower underserved communities with education, information and the resources necessary to help them thrive.”

“Our neighborhood residents need to be empowered financially in order to benefit from Avondale’s revitalization. We appreciate the partnership of Fifth Third Bank, The Community Builders and the Urban League in helping to make this happen,” said Russell Hairston, Executive Director, Avondale Development Corporation.

“We are making a powerful impact on families in Cincinnati through community outreach and engagement such as the Avondale Empowerment Day,” said Jillian Olinger, Great Lakes director of Community Life at The Community Builders. “This initiative is an innovative way for TCB to help connect families, particularly Black families, to financial coaching, and help increase economic mobility and housing stability. We’re helping residents reach financial goals and create pathways to homeownership.” 

As long-time supporters of University of Cincinnati athletics and the Fifth Third Arena, home of the Bearcats, the Avondale Empowerment Day included special visits from UC Men’s Basketball players, including 6-foot-6 freshman Dan Skillings and 6-foot guard David Dejulius.

JOHANNESBURG, May 4, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the selection of 10 startups to participate in the inaugural Qualcomm Make in Africa startup mentorship program, as part of the Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform announced in December 2022. These startups are developing innovative products in clean energy, agricultural technology, computing for education, geospatial predictive analysis, medical technologies, and innovations utilizing electric vehicles. Several startups also feature women in prominent leadership roles.

The startups, based in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and Rwanda, were selected from a pool of 550+ applicants from 34 African countries. They were carefully selected by a global jury based on a variety of qualifications including technical capabilities, business factors, and potential for innovation and intellectual property generation. The Qualcomm Make In Africa startups will receive equity-free mentorship in business planning, engineering, intellectual property protection, and the application of advanced connectivity, sensing, AI/ML and other processing technologies for innovative end-to-end systems solutions. The program is the first of its kind in Africa and is designed to add to the continued growth of the continent’s technology startup ecosystem.

The shortlisted companies and their technology solutions are (sorted by alphabetical order):

Ecorich Solutions – patented organic composting in KenyaFixbot – Vehicle diagnostics and inspection via OBD dongle in NigeriaKaraa – e-Bike tracking, charging, retrofit, and rentals in UgandaMaotronics Systems Limited – IOT-enabled precision agriculture in NigeriaMicrofuse – Affordable plugin computers for the education sector in UgandaNeural Labs Africa Ltd – Deep learning and computer vision for healthcare diagnosis in Kenya and SenegalOneTouch Diagnostics – Diabetes patch and monitoring system in NigeriaQuadLoop – Leveraging e-waste for solar e-Lanterns and battery storage in Nigeria.SLS Energy – Recycled lead-cell battery storage banks in RwandaSolarTaxi – Electric vehicle (EV) taxi and fleet management in Ghana

Announced in December 2022, Qualcomm Make in Africa will provide 1:1 mentorship for the shortlisted companies with Qualcomm leaders on a regular cadence to guide startups to product realization, as well as provide masterclasses on product management, pitch clinic, IPR, and hardware architecture. The program will culminate in a finale demo day in December 2023, connecting startups with various industry leaders, venture capitalists, investors, and other accelerators.

“I’d like to applaud and congratulate these 10 startups for their innovative solutions,” said Sudeepto Roy, Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm Incorporated. “I am beyond excited to hear about their respective problem domains and innovative solutions. They have applied their talents and ingenuity to address Africa’s present-day needs in areas of reliable access to clean energy, precision agriculture to conserve water and other resources, adaptations of electric transportation for many last-mile needs, using AI and other innovations for accelerating disease pathology and treatment, and addressing energy efficient, affordable computing for the education market. Over the next few months, we will mentor them in areas of business development, technology applications and intellectual property law. We are honored to be able to participate in their entrepreneurial journey and their future impact in Africa.”

“As part of our new Africa Innovation Platform, the Qualcomm Make in Africa mentorship program is one of many initiatives we are working on in close collaboration with government and industry stakeholders in Africa, to help position African entrepreneurs and researchers to service markets throughout the continent and realize their global ambitions. We believe that startups based in Africa are best placed to identify uniquely African problems that can be solved through end-to-end systems solutions and new business models,” said Elizabeth Migwalla, Vice President and Head of Government Affairs (Middle East and Africa), Qualcomm International, Inc. “We congratulate the shortlisted companies and look forward to a fruitful collaboration for innovation in the coming months.”

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is enabling a world where everyone and everything can be intelligently connected. Our one technology roadmap allows us to efficiently scale the technologies that launched the mobile revolution – including advanced connectivity, high-performance, low-power compute, on-device intelligence and more – to the next generation of connected smart devices across industries. Innovations from Qualcomm and our family of Snapdragon platforms will help enable cloud-edge convergence, transform industries, accelerate the digital economy, and revolutionize how we experience the world, for the greater good.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business.

Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.