UWI Consulting (UWIC), through the Caribbean Mobile Innovation Project/PitchIT Caribbean, has appointed mobile hubs (mHubs) in three countries across the Caribbean to serve the fast growing mobile app development community in those markets.

The PitchIT Caribbean hubs will operate out of The Barbados Coalition of Services Industry in that country, Quintessence Consulting in St Kitts and Nevis, and CARIRI Centre for Enterprise Development in Trinidad and Tobago.

An mHub is part of the World Bank Group’s infoDev ICT development approach, which seeks to build mobile-innovation communities by bringing together a variety of stakeholder groups which include entrepreneurs, developers, mobile phone companies and local businesses which are involved in activities that strengthen the mobile innovation ecosystem.

“This is an important step for us in our plans, through PitchIT Caribbean, as we seek to bolster the mobile app ecosystem toward establishing high-quality, sustainable businesses in the region,” Professor Claremont Kirton, acting executive director, UWIC said.

“With the mHubs working on the ground with these tech entrepreneurs, the kind of hand-holding and business development that can take place will result in these businesses transitioning from ideation to maturity in a manner that fits the business within a culturally and economically appropriate context.”

Mobile app entrepreneurs using the services of the mHub in the respective market will be able to access technical, business and project management training; mentoring, business incubation services, investor readiness and demo day preparations as well as financial and other technical support. The PitchIt Caribbean central team and the mHubs will also collaborate to provide the entrpreneurs with opportunites to attend major tech conferences such as Disrupt in the US and SLUSH in Europe.

Entrepreneurs will be able to enter PitchIT Caribbean and benefit from the services of these mHubs through a call for admission that the entity will put out in December 2015.

PitchIT Caribbean is powered by UWIC, the lead in the three-party consortium, which uses expertise from the University of the West Indies’ vast network of specialists across the region to deliver results for a vast range of clients. PitchIT Caribbean is one among the range of projects being handled by UWIC on behalf of multi-laterals such as The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.