KawaMoka, a local coffee company has been adjudged winner of Ghana StartUp Cup 2015.

Emi-Beth Quatson's company beat competition from eCampus App, an innovative e-learning platform and Coliba, a waste management startup.

It was the third edition of the Ghana StartUp Cup held at the British Council and it exceeded expectation.

After whittling down hundreds of entrants, via an online registration, twelve entrepreneurs were left standing to pitch their business ideas to a crack team of judges made up of Nancy Glaser of Stanford SEED Klenam Fiadzo (Yougora Ltd, Cofounder), and Kwaku David (KD Group Global).

KawaMoka stood tall.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Chief Economic Officer of the U.S. Embassy, Jimmy Mauldin, admonished the youth to take up challenges and provide sustainable and identifiable solutions to the problems around them through their businesses, adding that: “You are the future of Ghana”

He reiterated the U.S Government’s support for StartUp Cup Ghana, through the Global Entrepreneurship Program The support, he believed will encourage the growth in entrepreneurship in Ghana, as well as other exchange programmes such as the Young African Leaders’ Initiative (YALI).

“Not all business plan competitions are meant for your business”, commented Technoserve Ghana Deputy Country Director, Samuel Baba Adongo who was also a keynote speaker at the awards ceremony.

He continued by admonishing startups to focus on growth as a first step in developing their business while desisting from the habit of moving from one competition to the other.

Ethel Cofie (Women in Tech, Founder), Yaganoma Baatuolkuu (Wanjo Foods, CEO), Wayne Miranda (Growth Mosaic, CEO), Joyce Okyerewaa Danso (UN Youth Ambassador, Ghana), Mac-Jordan Degadjor (Africa New Media, Cofounder) also formed part of panelists for a Social Good Meetup on Entrepreneurship and the Global Goals which took place earlier at the same venue to discuss and address the funding and investment gap for startups in Ghana.

Alumni of the StartUp Cup program, Lily Kudzro (Devio Arts, CEO) Francis Obirikorang (Swappaholics, Cofounder) and Nana Opoku Agyeman-Prempeh(Asoriba, Cofounder), also took chances to lead a breakout session on growing and expanding your business.

"We took a long time to come to a decision after witnessing the pitches," confessed the Ghana StartUp Cup Ghana Director, Emmanuel Nyame.

"There was a lot of deliberations as all twelve of these businesses are so strong. In the end it came down to deciding whether we wanted to give the backing to the best ideas or the businesses that we thought could really succeed."

So what do all of the finalists walk away with?

Finalists with Agricultural background received a prize package by kind sponsorship of TechnoServe Ghana, while ultimate winner, KawaMoka would continue the journey to compete with other African countries for the next phase of the competition.

All 12 finalists will get astute mentorship prize packages starting December this year and it will be sponsored by MEL Consulting.

The National StartUp Festival was put together by Stillwater Equity Partners and StartUp Cup Ghana.