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Elizabeth Mwangi, the founder of Gwiji, has won $30,000 (Ksh. 3.8 million) in the 2023 Aurora Tech Award for her app that empowers women.

Elizabeth beat 11 other African women who had been shortlisted for the award to take home the $30,000 winning prize. She won the award for her startup that connects cleaners in Nairobi’s slums with local clients. The startup empowers women from Nairobi slums by linking with them with cleaning jobs in and around Nairobi.

The project was launched in May 2022 and has so far been able to complete more than 2,000 cleaning orders and increase a cleaner’s income from $2 (Ksh. 258) to $10 (Ksh. 1,292) per day.

Elizabeth says the idea to start Gwiji was inspired by the roadside women who sit outside residential estates hoping to be picked for cleaning work. With a mobile app, these women can get work at the comfort of their homes from a pool of clients, exposing them to predictable and sustainable work.

Gwiji was co-founded by Elizabeth Mwangi, together with Samuel Njiru. It is split into two parts. There is the Gwiji Clients, which allows clients to post jobs if they need cleaning services and Gwiji Cleaners that connects cleaners with cleaning jobs. The app is available on the Google Play Store for Android devices.