Eleven startups have been selected for the next stage of the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator, gaining the chance to pitch to prospective investors in Dubai.
The MultiChoice Africa Accelerator programme, the brainchild of the MultiChoice Group and part of the MultiChoice Innovation Fund, in collaboration with Dubai-based business incubator Companies Creating Change (C3), technical partner EOH, and Galelo Africa, has been designed as a platform to help grow startup businesses from across Africa.
The first phase of the programme saw public and private-sector partners in each country nominating businesses or entrepreneurs for the programme. From there, 29 of the startups embarked on an intensive virtual training course during December 2022.
Eleven companies have now been selected to proceed to the next stage, attending a dedicated bootcamp in Lusaka, Zambia to learn more about how to shape their story for international investors, and to get “pitch ready” before their presentations in Dubai.
Two of the startups are from Nigeria, namely identify verification startup Dojah and agri-tech company Crop2Cash, and another two from South Africa – natural language processing tool provider Botlhale AI and ed-tech startup Gradesmatch.
They include Angolan on-demand quick-commerce platform Tupuca, Ethiopian home service provider marketplace Taskmoby, Ivorian media tech company StarNews Mobile, Ghanaian social commerce startup Tendo, Kenyan e-health startup Zuri, Senegalese fintech startup MaTontine, and Zambian credit platform Mighty Finance Solution.
“There’s no denying the impact African SMMEs have on job creation and economic growth,” said Fhulufhelo Badugela, MultiChoice Africa CEO. “Through the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme, our vision is to take that impact and multiply it beyond what our startup founders ever believed possible. I have no doubt these small businesses will be able to take everything they’ve learned so far to unlock transformative business funding.”