Acecore Takes $10,000 at TechCabal Battlefield in Lagos

Acecore took the $10,000 top prize at TechCabal's TC Battlefield at Moonshot in Lagos on October 29, 2026, ahead of Supplya, which won $5,000, and Navidyn, which took $2,500. Ten startups pitched a panel of judges at the annual competition, and two of the three winners build hardware in a country that leans on imports for its technology products.

Supplya and Navidyn also earned places in Antler's residency programme, which gives them access to a potential $250,000 in pre-seed funding.

What does Acecore actually sell?

The PowerCell is a battery backup that stores electricity from the grid or solar panels and powers a home or business when the grid goes down. A wall-mounted cabinet holds the battery, an inverter that turns stored power into the kind of power appliances use, and a charge controller that protects the battery from overcharging.

Most buyers would otherwise wire those parts together separately or run a generator. An app called PowerCore tracks consumption and flags maintenance. A 5kVA, 10kWh unit, which can power several appliances at once while holding 10kWh of energy, starts at $5,250, and Sterling Bank, SunFi and Earthbond finance customers who cannot pay upfront.

The company holds MANCAP certification and says it has $164,000 in purchase orders from buyers including Chopbox, PartyRice and Skydiamond Homes. That figure is a pipeline, not cash in the bank.

Founder Caleb Iwuoha, an agricultural engineer with certificates in electrical and mechanical engineering, started assembling battery systems in a shed in Oyigbo, Rivers State, in 2024. He says monthly output has grown from 8kWh to more than 320kWh, and the company now runs a workshop and showroom. Iwuoha told the judges the casing and battery software were "all built here in Nigeria by our very own hands."

Acecore names Lumos and Greenage Technologies among its rivals and says it undercuts the market by 10% to 20%. Its own comparison, $5,250 against $6,200 for a competitor's cabinet of the same size, works out at roughly 15%. Iwuoha put his margin at 62%, leaving about $2,000 to build each unit.

The stronger argument for local manufacturing is Nigeria's import dependence. The country imported 1,721MW of Chinese solar panels in the year to June 2025, the second-highest total in Africa, according to Ember.

Acecore does not say where its battery cells come from. It projects 170 units and $892,000 in revenue for 2026, a figure consistent with its stated unit price. It also reports $2.58 million from 340 units over ten months, which implies a far higher average price than its pricing supports: at $5,250 a unit, those 340 units would generate closer to $1.79 million. The $138,000 it reported for 2025 represents local purchase orders — commitments from buyers to purchase, not cash collected.

How does Supplya's credit model work?

Founded in 2021, Supplya began as a marketplace where small retailers order directly from manufacturers and pay 30 days later at no interest. Chief executive Opeyemi Kehinde has a decade of sales operations experience, chief operating officer Joy Adeniran is an e-commerce entrepreneur, and chief technology officer Osama Okunbo previously worked at Access Bank. The company dates its current lending record from October 2024 and now calls itself a credit layer for informal commerce.

Retailers order stock through the platform, often over WhatsApp, and the credit attaches to the goods and not to cash, which the company says stops borrowers from diverting loans. Repayment comes from daily sales, and field officers who collect payments also sign up new shops. Ten manufacturers supply the platform, including Planet Bottling Company and Flour Mills of Nigeria.

The repayment record is the strongest of the three. Supplya claims it has financed more than $150,000 of inventory since October 2024, with 98% repaid over 18 months and defaults below 1%, across more than 120 monthly active retailers. Those are encouraging figures on a small book, and Nigerian lenders know a portfolio can look excellent until it grows or the economy turns.

The gap Supplya is filling is wide. The World Bank said in December 2025 that fewer than one in 20 Nigerian small businesses can access bank credit, and PwC's 2024 survey put the figure at about 4%. Omnibiz and TradeDepot, which Supplya names as rivals, supply goods, while the company wants retailers to buy from several vendors.

Supplya currently earns a 3% to 8% margin on the stock it sells. It says its next revenue lines come from a 2% fee on credit used and a 1% commission on each marketplace sale. It is raising $250,000 in pre-seed funding and plans to put 45% of it, about $112,500, into expanding its credit pool — roughly three quarters on top of the more than $150,000 financed since October 2024.

What does Navidyn need to commercialise?

Navidyn built the robot before the company. Mechatronics engineer David Ojabo, according to the company, led core development of the prototype, which finished second at the 2025 Coderina University Challenge, known as COUCH, under the name Neuronaut Robotics at Nile University of Nigeria. The team says it also won first place at the 2025 SPE Africa Energy Challenge and placed second at the Red Bull Basement Nigeria final in April 2026.

Atabot is an observation-class remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, rated to 50 metres with a battery that lasts 36 minutes. Navidyn plans to rent it at $4,000 a day, add lump-sum fees for bigger jobs, and sell machines later. It will start with small and medium-sized offshore operators in shallow water. It wants $800,000 to finish a product, land a first recurring contract, and fund 18 months. It forecasts profit in year two and $1.82 million in operating profit by year five. "Now it's time to invest in advanced AI and robotics," the cofounders told the judges.

The case rests on a shift in who owns Nigeria's oil. Shell, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Eni and Equinor have sold onshore and shallow water assets worth about $6 billion across 26 oil blocks to mostly Nigerian buyers since 2023, according to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The local content regulator wants Nigerian firms to supply 70% of the industry's goods and services by 2027, and puts the current level at about 61%.

The competitive ground is crowded. Navidyn's own map lists Marine Platforms, Tilone, GOSL, Tallsea and Subsea 7, and Marine Platforms ordered two work-class ROVs from UK-based Forum Energy Technologies last October. Renting by the day puts Navidyn in the same business as operators that already own vessels, crews and imported fleets, and work-class machines handle jobs Atabot cannot yet do.

Navidyn's list of 50 target companies splits into 23 small, 22 medium and 13 large, which adds up to 58. Ogaji also works as a lead engineer at a Texas-based drone manufacturer. At the pitch, the founders said a Sahara Group representative offered a $5,000 inspection job before the product was ready. Securing more commitments like that will matter as Navidyn moves towards commercialising its technology.

The verdict

Acecore looks closest to a working business. It has orders, a workshop, and banks willing to finance buyers. What it has not shown is cash, and a price only slightly below imports leaves little room for error. It is worth backing if those orders turn into paid and delivered units.

Supplya has the best repayment record of the three, but $150,000 of financing is a small book. How borrowers behave once Supplya starts charging fees on credit and marketplace sales is the open question. It is worth watching closely.

Navidyn has the boldest idea and the least to show for it: a prototype rated to 50 metres, no reported revenue, and a team that only formed this year. A first paid inspection job would change that.

Both Supplya and Navidyn now hold places in Antler's residency, where access to $250,000 in pre-seed money could turn a $150,000 credit pool and an $800,000 robotics plan into operating businesses.