Safaricom, M-PESA Africa, and Sumitomo Corporation have invited early stage tech startups to join the Spark Accelerator program, which aims at accelerating early-stage startups to grow and scale their businesses.
- The three-month accelerator program will provide a blend of training, mentorship, funding and go-to-market support to spark the growth and scale of ventures that come into the accelerator and set them up for long-term success.
- It will take an ecosystem-based approach to identify and accelerate the startups by leveraging a team of experts who understand market dynamics, emerging tech and who are keen to enable continuous innovation.
- Participating startups are set to benefit with access to technical support to develop mini-apps embedded into Safaricom’s M-PESA Super App, empowering them to reach more than 4 million customers who use the app.
“ With the accelerator, we are offering more than just capital injection which is what we did previously with Spark Fund,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom, “We have restructured the program to address the challenges that hinder early startups from growing to scale.”
“Sumitomo Corporation’s wide range of business experience will contribute to create innovative businesses and support the expansion of the startup ecosystem,” said Katsuya Kashiki, General Manager, Smart Communications Platform Business Division.
M-PESA Africa will offer expertise, market research and insights, and other capacity support for startups looking to expand their reach to other countries. The support will continue beyond the three-month program enabling startups in the program to tap into more than 60 million customers and 5 million businesses across M-PESA’s eight markets.
“We have therefore partnered with Safaricom and Sumitomo to launch the Spark Accelerator to provide funding, technical expertise, resources and mentorship to the next generation of the continent’s leading tech startups. In turn, the startups will create innovations that connect customers and businesses on M-PESA to more opportunities while providing them with even more value,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Managing Director, M-PESA Africa.
- The accelerator program will culminate in an investor demo day for the startups to pitch for investment from Safaricom and partner venture capital firms.
- iHUB, a pioneer in Kenya’s startup ecosystem and a subsidiary of Africa’s leading innovation hub, Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), will be the implementing partner of the Spark Accelerator.
- Other supporting partners include Vodacom and AWS.
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