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Cascador Pitch Day 2026 just wrapped in Lagos, and Nigeria’s mid-stage founders walked away with serious capital.
On June 3, seven companies split ₦7.7 billion in catalytic funding plus $20,000 in prize awards. The focus wasn’t early ideas.
Cascador backed businesses that already have traction and need fuel to scale.
The event is the final stage for Cascador’s Catalytic Fund.
Delivered with Sterling Bank, the fund puts up to $5M a year into debt, equity, and collateral deals tailored to each company.
Who won big
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- Agriarche: Deina Mayaki’s agribusiness took the top award with ₦2.5B. The play is bringing structure and transparency to Nigeria’s fragmented farm value chains.
- Koolboks: Deborah Gael secured ₦2B for solar-powered refrigeration, then added the $10,000 Best Pitch Prize. The tech tackles food loss and healthcare storage where power is unreliable.
- Powerstove: Okey Esse landed ₦1.8B for clean cooking stoves. He also won the $20,000 Best Impact Prize for improving household health and cutting emissions.
- Stears: Preston Ideh’s data intelligence company got $450,000 to keep building Africa’s research infrastructure.
- First Electric: Daniel Komolafe secured ₦500M for electric mobility and energy solutions.
- Fortics: Toluwalope Femi-Oyewole won ₦200M to expand its healthcare delivery network.
- Indigenius AI: Yinka Iyinolakan took $250,000 in funding plus the $10,000 NSIA Innovation Prize.
Why it matters
The winners span agriculture, clean energy, healthcare, AI, data, and mobility. These are core sectors Nigeria needs solved, not hype sectors. Cascador’s 12-week ScaleUp program gives founders governance, mentorship, and follow-on funding access before the money hits.
The next chapter is execution. With patient capital in hand, these companies now have to prove they can scale systems, reach more customers, and deliver real impact.
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