- The Spark Accelerator program has unveiled the second cohort of 10 startups that are ready to stimulate innovation and scale in Africa.
- The selected startups are: Mediakits.io” Weplay Arcade” Gopay” FlexPay” Quepay” Leta.ai” Oye” Digitax” Insurance agency Limited And StockApp.
- The operating in broad segments of the economy, including embedded finance, creative economy, future fintech and SME productivity tools.
Spark Accelerator Program, an initiative supported by Keny’s Tech Giant Safaricom has welcomed 10 startups in the second cohort of training, aimed at better reforming the future of digital first economy in Africa. The 10 startups, which have been selected from a pool of 200 applicants, will follow training before they before potential investors for different forms of financing next year to speed up growth.
In an industry update on Wednesday, Safaricom and Partners announced the Lucky 10 startups as: Mediakits.io” Weplay Arcade” Gopay” FlexPay” Quepay” Leta.ai” Oye” Digitax” Insurance agency Limited And Stock app. Leaders of these startups will now undergo an intensive three -month program coaching that is aimed at accelerating their expansion, so that they are successful in the field of target markets in Africa and beyond.
The Spark Accelerator is a business accelerator who is powered by a strategic partnership between Safaricom, M-Pesa Africa and Sumitomo Corporation, implemented by IHUB, with the support of Vodacom, PWC and AWS.
On which Spark Accelerator program trains on
Spark Accelerator program includes core modules of training, mentorship, financing, as well as a go-to-market initiative that extends over two roads, namely track and company involvement-guided track and business involvement. The number-led number offers a Tailormade coaching that immerses the participants on workshops, advisory forums and successful mentoring plans by expert guided workshops, advisory forums.
On the other hand, Corporate Engagement offers Track Startups access to the commercial and technical teams of Safaricom and M-Pesa Africa, plus the enormous distribution chain of the technology giant, which offers the companies a lead in their push for scale and integrate with ecosystems.
The second cohort of Spark Accelerator program has signed Startups with presence in various segments of the digital economy, including embedded finances, creatives, future or fintech, and those mining different productivity tools aimed at SMEs.
“As part of our dedication to our goal of transforming lives, we want to cherish commercially viable technical startups, grow and scales that have a positive social impact. We have knitted our size of support to startups in an early stage that meet the criteria, support technology and product development, access to the market and access to capital,” Dr. Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Savaricom.
Spark Accelerator Program will be culminating in an investor in February next year, where the startups will pitch for a team of venture funds and potential investors. In addition, the startups receive nine to 12 months of strategic support after the immersion of acceleration.
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Creative ecosystems need financing models
“Africa’s innovation and creative ecosystems need financing models that go beyond the current traditional financing sources. Corporate accelerators play a vital role by bringing the resources, infrastructure, and market access of established companies into direct partnership with startups. This approach strengthens the capacity of ventures to Scale and Creates New Pathways for Sustainable Growth and Resilience Across The Continent.
The inaugural cohort showed the power of the program in strengthening startups with market access, technical support, mentoring and investor connections, stimulating scalability and sustainability. Twiva, for example, collaborated with Safaricom Hook to make more than 11,000 influencers on board, while Chpter has scaled his AI-driven platform in South Africa and Nigeria. Healthx Africa has increased its subscriber base by 40% in six months and integrated Consumer Miniaapps with M-Pesa’s consumer to meet the growing demand for hybrid healthcare.
Chumz reached more than 300,000 users through Gamified Spaar strategies and expanded to Rwanda, and the partnership of Blackrhino with the Safaricom brand achieved the 2024 Marketing Society of Kenya’s Best Emerging Technology in Marketing Award. Safaricom continues to promote commercial partnerships with these Cohort I startups.
Read also: Safaricom’s most important M-Pesa upgrade since 2015 to deliver scalability, resilience
African startups with global impact
The success stories of the Spark Accelerator emphasize the crucial role as a catalyst for African startups with global impact, which promotes innovation that resonates far beyond the continent.
Startups for second cohort will use the robust technological assets from Safaricom, such as Daraja and M-Pesa Africa Open APIs, in addition to practical product development and integration support, so that they can quickly build, test and scales of transformative solutions in various markets.
Via the Pan-African Innovation Network from IHUB, these startups use a dynamic community of entrepreneurs, experts and ecosystem enablers, unlock opportunities for cross-border partnerships, market expansion and knowledge exchange. Furthermore, reinforced by partners such as AWS, who offers Activate Credits for critical cloud infrastructure, the Startups program makes up with the industrial tools, community connections and technical resources needed for efficient scale and lasting success
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