Africa’s leading tech Accelerator, Startupbootcamp AfriTech, together with anchor partner and leading telecoms giant, Telecel Group, have selected the participants of the much-coveted Accelerator Program, the Africa Startup Initiative Program (ASIP) .
The intrinsic value of startups in Africa lies in their ability to build fast and effective solutions to pressing challenges. Over the years another key aspect has come to the fray; scaling across borders. The ASIP Accelerator has managed to help founders fine-tune their business models while also facilitating entry into new markets such as Senegal.
This has been possible through a historic partnership with DER/FJ, which was established to advance Entrepreneurship for Women and Youth in Senegal by the President of the Republic, His Excellency Macky Sall. Giving a keynote at the event, Senior Innovation Lead Adrien Schwarz said;
“We are impressed with the work that Startupbootcamp AfriTech is doing and are excited that there were three times more Francophone founders compared to the previous years. This validates the calibre of startups in Francphone countries and also shows that their exposure to acceleration has improved. It is also wonderful to see the progress that the past Senegalese startups namely Proxalys,Parcsmart and Yobante have made”
Anchored by telecoms giant Telecel, the Africa Startup Initiative Program (ASIP) aims to support the next generation of early-stage African tech startups that are disrupting key industry verticals that include FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, Climate-tech, eCommerce, Digital Health, and CleanTech, Mobility, Micro-leasing, and digitizing the informal economy.
“Telecel is proud of the great effort that was put into this cohort 3 of the Telecel Group ASIP accelerator program powered by SBC AfriTech,” says Telecel Group Executive Deputy and ASIP Director Eleanor Azar. “We have exceptional startups with innovative and positively disruptive ways of treating the African challenges that they have set out to solve and build their startups around. To those who did not make it into the top 10, I wish you all the luck, you should be proud that you have come out on top of more than 2,000 applications received into the program. “
Other partners include the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), AWS,Freshworks, Google and Firstbase.
Participants will receive an intensive three-month coaching and support program to accelerate their growth and benefits worth US$750 000. Startups will also have access to the global Accelerator Squared platform which has a complete library of content, group workshops, 1:1 mentoring, collaborative sessions with Entrepreneurs in Residence, and invite-only discussion forums with founders from around the globe.
The program will take place in Dakar, Senegal and startups will be hosted at the D-hub, – a space commissioned by DER/FJ
“We’re excited by the quality of startups in this cohort,” commented Program Director Henry Ojuor. ”20% of them have applied before, 50% applied on the recommendations of an alumni founder and all are post MVP & Post revenue with a few in the growth stage. Cohort 3 companies are building in over 12 verticals and we have a 30% female founder ratio. It’s definitely going to be 13 weeks of far-reaching progress & impact, ” he added.
We are honored to announce that the following startups will be joining the 2023 ASIP cohort 3:
Kyanda Africa is a revolutionary Kenyan fintech platform that provides businesses and individuals with convenient and reliable money transfer solutions. The startup has a network of agents, API gateway, and various access channels such as USSD, Mobile App & Whatsapp Chatbots making the services customizable dependent on the users’ needs
PharmaServ is a Nigerian SaaS product, which automates the process of sales orders, tracking sales team performance, and reconciling incoming purchase orders, payments, and invoices for health brands. This is a labor-intensive process that is still predominantly manual for most local companies in emerging markets.
Sodishop is a Malian marketplace, an online sales, and purchase platform, present in 4 countries in West Africa, we deliver thousands of orders per month across Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire.
BD Waste is a Ghanaian GreenTech startup that combines fintech and sustainability to recover Plastic waste from communities. Their Digicycle product allows customers to directly deposit plastic waste into their digital wallets and receive credit for it. This credit can be used to purchase data packages, airtime, food items, stationery, and health insurance.
Limawa, whose Senegalese founder operates in Côte d’Ivoire aims to tackle the issues of food conservation and transportation through solar-powered split air conditioners that can reach -2 °C (designed in CI by our team). Limawa offers an innovative and cost-efficient alternative to industrial compressors for the cold chain industry. This solution is suitable for trucks, containers, and trailers.
Parkwell is a Nigerian online sharing Platform that matches drivers with available, safe parking spaces and helps property owners list their parking spaces for optimum use. The digital parking platform integrates parking facilities and connects them to mobile for a seamless experience.
Jand2Gidi, also from Nigeria, offers ‘Logistics As A Service’ to B2B and B2B2C customers whose users are engaged in cross-border trade. They have built shipping APIs to provide the same hassle-free, transparent, and trackable shipping services to their B2B merchants to enable them to grow faster after nearly a decade of building robust, cutting-edge freight forwarding and last-mile delivery services
Moja Ride from Côte d’Ivoire has made its mission to enable better and cleaner mobility services to African cities by making financing easy and accessible for all transportation professionals. Drivers and transport companies can easily qualify for new car loans and car repairs by simply working with Moja Ride’s advanced digital fare payment and booking technologies.
SafeTrack is a Morrocan technology startup that allows a 75 % reduction in water consumption for irrigation at 20 % of the price of its competitors. Their IoT solution of geolocation and monitoring is 100 % mobile, has simple maintenance, and does not require any IT infrastructure. Composed of revalued smartphones and sensors and other affordable devices, and a cloud software platform developed internally.”
Chestify AI Labs from Ghana provides an AI platform that gives a highly accurate algorithm for diagnosing chest X-Ray pathologies. Two-thirds of the world’s population of over 5 billion people with no access to a radiologist and radiologic diagnostic support tools and Chestify’s mission is to aggressively tackle the socio-economic and health distress created by inadequate radiology Infrastructure and the presence of fewer radiologists in Africa.
Yoonema is a Senegalese social e-commerce platform that offers a frictionless, unique, and simplified experience to e-buyers who desire quality products and B2B players who offer a full global e-commerce experience to their clients.
The ASIP Accelerator powered by SBC AfriTech will culminate in an online Demo Day on S25 May 2023 where startup founders pitch their disruptive solutions to a broad audience of media, investors, corporate partners, and industry stakeholders.
About Startupbootcamp AfriTech
Startupbootcamp AfriTech was launched in 2017 as the first multi-corporate-backed pan-African startup accelerator. We run world-class accelerator programs, working with some of the most disruptive startups on the continent. We provide access to our global network of corporate partners, investors, and mentors. For more information visit: http://bit.ly/sbcafritech
About Africa Startup Initiative
ASIP is a program founded by Moh Damush, Telecel Group CEO as a CSR activity. ASI Program contributes in a meaningful way to the African Continent to support young startups whose innovative ideas are creating a difference in their communities, exposing them to international organizations, and bridging the knowledge and expertise to allow them to attract partners that can add value to their startups. For more information on the ASIP, visit www.asiprogram.com
About Telecel Group
Telecel Group operates in four different lines of business all under the telecom industry: (1) Telecel Mobile, owns and operates several mobile operators in Africa and Europe; (2) Telecel Global Services, provides wholesale, enterprise, and digital security services to telecom operators and enterprises worldwide; (3) Telecel Play, a digital platform that is digitizing mobile users; and (4) Africa Startup Initiative Program supports innovative startups in Africa and offers them funding and guidance to scale and For more information on the Telecel Group program, visit http://telecelgroup.com
About Der/FJ
Der/FJ is an institution under the authority of the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal and it was launched by President Macky Sall in 2018 in order to support entrepreneurs throughout Senegal. This support is given through both financial and non-financial services, with an emphasis on sectors that include technology and innovation, hence the creation of the D-hub incubator. For more information about DER/FJ visit https://der.sn/
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a close to 50-year proven track record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have a high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food & water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 9.3 billion spanning over 85 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector development banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl
