… Two Nigerian Startups Enter Final 11
At a time when unemployment challenges and economic instability are high, small, micro and medium-sized businesses (SMMEs) are proving to be the engines of economic growth and job creation throughout the African continent.
In recognition of the critical role SMMEs play, MultiChoice launched the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator programme which trained 29 businesses across 9 African countries in key entrepreneurial skills.
As the second leg of the programme, a panel of experts has selected 11 of the most promising small businesses and invited them to pitch to prospective international investors in Dubai.
“There’s no denying the impact African SMMEs have on job creation and economic growth,” says MultiChoice Africa CEO, Fhulufhelo Badugela. “Through the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme, our vision is to take that impact and multiply it beyond what our start-up 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.”
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 start-up businesses from across Africa.
The programme specifically targets start-ups and small businesses in the technology sectors of health tech, agritech, fintech, edutech, the circular economy, and creative industries.
Badugela further states: “The quality of the submissions this year was high. It confirms our view that Africa has enormous potential. The specific focus on tech industries allows us to showcase the innovation of Africa to the world, but also enables these businesses to develop tech solutions to real societal problems.”
The first phase of the MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme saw public and private-sector partners in each country nominating businesses or entrepreneurs for the programme. From there, 29 of the start-ups embarked on an intensive virtual training course during December 2022 and in Johannesburg.
The 11 start-ups attended a dedicated boot camp in Lusaka, Zambia to learn more about how to shape their story for international investors, and to get “pitch ready” before their big presentations.
The 11 start-ups shortlisted to present their business plans to a panel of investors for this year’s MultiChoice Africa Accelerator Programme are:
Tupuca, an Angolan on-demand quick-commerce platform and logistical aggregator of uber-like drivers that allows users to order from multiple vendors and service providers ranging from restaurants, grocery stores, small retailers and courier services.
Taskmoby from Ethiopia, the first digital marketplace in Ethiopia that connects customers with qualified home services providers (e.g. plumbers, cleaners, electricians), leveraging a mobile application, SMS/USSD solutions and a dedicated call center.
Others are, a pan-African media-tech company from Ivory Coast that monetizes its digital content, StarNews Mobile; a zero capital social commerce platform, Tendo from Ghana; a virtual hospital, Zuri Health from Kenya; an end-to-end Identity verification and compliance framework, Dojah Inc from Nigeria; a non-internet digital financial service for smallholder farmers, Crop2Cash from Nigeria; and from Senegal, MaTontine, a digital financial services platform services for financially excluded women in Africa. Also included in the list are Botlhale AI from South Africa, which builds Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for African languages; Gradesmatch, also from South Africa; and AI-powered Mighty Finance Solution from Zambia, which provides SMEs in emerging markets with seamless credit and financial solutions leveraging proprietary credit rating algorithm.
