The 12 startups that have been selected to form the South African cohort of the Green Pioneer Accelerator have been announced, with participating companies to be assisted in scaling their businesses offered the chance to earn EUR50,000 (US$58,000) in funding.
Disrupt Africa reported last month the programme, which was announced in September and is a joint initiative of Impact Amplifier, GrowthAfrica, VC4Africa and Hivos, received 249 applications.
Eleven startups will take place in the Kenyan leg of the programme and 12 in the South African version, with the 16-week acceleration programme having already begun and startups set to receive dealmaking support for the rest of 2015.
The South African cohort includes waterless toilet solution Savvy Loo, solar charging solution SolarTurtle, organic tea startup Lady Bonin’s Tea, off-grid clean energy firm Phambili Energy, electric minicab service Mellowcabs, and road construction innovator Mechanical Concrete.
The others are biofuel feedstock crop Project Solaris, pedal powered generator Shakti Energy, farmer data solution MySmartFarm, natural ingredient cosmetics startup Botanica Natural Products, plant-based protein product maker New Earth Health Solutions, and Spekboom Trading, which generates blue-chip carbon credits.
“This programme is about taking promising green entrepreneurs and getting them ready for investment, with fundable business plans. We have a long track record of successful deal making and this is the next step to accelerating innovation in the green space. Really we are breaking open a new era for green innovation and entrepreneurship,” Maximilian Pichulik, partner of South Africa-based Impact Amplifier, said.
