Eleven African startups have been selected for the Norrsken Impact Accelerator in Stockholm, Sweden, gaining access to support and potential access to funding.
Founded by Niklas Adalberth, one of the founders of Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna, in 2016, Norrsken aims to help entrepreneurs solve the world’s greatest challenges. Its ecosystem consists of Norrsken House, a co-working space for over 350 impact entrepreneurs in Stockholm, the Norrsken Founders Fund, and Norrsken VC.
Disrupt Africa reported in 2019 the foundation had launched operations in Kigali, Rwanda, which it said it planned to use as a base for investing across the East and Central African region, and it has now accepted 11 startups from Africa into the Norrsken Impact Accelerator.
The goal of the accelerator – which will have 20 participant startups – is to create real change through investing in next generation business models, focusing on businesses where the impact is a result of the core operations, and impact and profit go hand-in-hand.
The 11 African startups include four from Kenya, namely recruitment startup Afric AI-Labs, fintech platform Asilimia, digital banking service Kwara, and payments startup Nash.
There are three from Ghana, in the form of agri-tech startup Complete Farmer, logistics platform Kadi, and e-health startup Wala Health, and another three from Nigeria, namely health insurance startup cribMD, ed-tech platform Gradely, and e-health startup WellaHealth.
The African contingent is completed by Rwandan salary advance service PesaChoice. Other startups hail from Argentina, Sweden, the United States (US), India, and Mexico.
Unicorn founders and serial entrepreneurs will offer tailor-made support during the eight-week programme, which concludes with a pitch in front of more than 150 international investors such as Accel and Norrsken VC.
“Norrsken has proven to find and accelerate high-impact startups with unicorn potential and we are honoured to participate this year. Following Kwara’s rapid growth and international presence, we are certain that the close interaction and mentorship from founders of unicorns such as Klarna, Truecaller and Oatly will ensure Kwara learns from the very best as we chart our path to the top,” said Cynthia Wandia, Kwara’s chief executive officer (CEO).
