Safaricom revealed today the first class of the Spark Accelerator Programme, which consists of nine entrepreneurs in their early stages.
The programme will offer the chosen firms through training, mentorship, and go-to-market support. Access to financing, markets, technology, and assistance with product development will all be part of this.
The Accelerator program was launched last year in collaboration with M-PESA Africa and Sumitomo Corporation following Safaricom’s Spark Venture Fund restructuring. The program aims to accelerate product innovation by providing a platform for enabling startups to expand and build their businesses.
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Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom, announced that the Spark Accelerator programme was established on the solid concept of using technology to encourage significant innovation. He also said their goal is to significantly influence societal change and promote economic growth by investing in and supporting these tech-enabled startups.
Spark Accelerator: Nine diverse startups shortlisted
The startups were selected across categories such as Financial, Fintech, SME Productivity Tools and Content.
The first group of the Spark Accelerator Program will include Chumz, a fintech company that wants to encourage investment and saving. BlackRhino VR is an extended reality startup developing products for brands and creators.
It introduced HealthX Africa, a MedTech company with digital and physical touchpoints, a no-code augmented reality platform.
Faidi HR is a startup building a one-in-all Cloud payroll and HR platform for businesses
A fintech company, Nobuk, aims to make financial reporting more accessible and payment collection more efficient. A Small and Medium Entrepreneur’s productivity startup called Chapter is developing an AI-powered B2C platform for payments and social media marketing
Twiva is a social commerce platform that connects brands with social media influencers to market their products and services; Churpy is a startup that aims to automate repetitive and manual CFO tasks in the office; and VunaPay is a fintech in the agricultural space that facilitates payments to smallholder farmers.
Accelerating Startup Innovation for Growth and Development in Africa
Katsuya Kashiki, General Manager of Smart Communication Platform SBU, Sumitomo Corporation, announced that they are excited to expand digital financial services and contribute to the development of the Kenyan and African economies, human resource development, and more prosperous life through support and collaboration with advanced startups.
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He added that they will utilise their broad global business know-how, excellent operations, and customer base of Safaricom and M-PESA Africa.
He further said that his organisation is pleased to have these startups join the programme, as they align with their mission to accelerate innovation for African development.
The lives of millions of Kenyans are considerably improved by their innovative solutions, which take advantage of revolutionary chances to use technology. iHUB/CcHUB Managing Partner Nissi Madu stated they are excited to work with the startups to help them grow their businesses, scale their solutions, and increase their impact.