Startupbootcamp powered Africa Startup Initiative Program selects 11 startups for Cohort 3 with 30% female founder ratio

The winners of the coveted Accelerator Program, the Africa Startup Initiative Program, have been chosen by Startupbootcamp AfriTech, Africa's top tech accelerator, and founding partner and industry titan Telecel Group (ASIP).

The capacity of entrepreneurs in Africa to create quick and efficient answers to urgent situations is what gives them their intrinsic worth. Scaling across borders has entered the picture as a crucial new factor throughout time. While assisting entrepreneurs in expanding into new markets like Senegal, the ASIP Incubator has indeed been able to help founders refine their business models.

This has been made possible by a long-standing cooperation with DER/FJ, which was founded first by the President of the Republic, His Eminence Macky Sall, to promote entrepreneurship for women and youth in Senegal. Senior Innovation Lead Adrien Schwarz gave a keynote address during the gathering and stated;

"We are thrilled that there have been three times more Francophone founders than in previous years and are delighted with both the efforts that the ASIP and Startupbootcamp AfriTech are still doing. This verifies the quality of companies in Francophone nations and demonstrates an improvement in their exposure to acceleration. The advancements made by past Senegalese startups Proxalys, Parcsmart, and Yobante are also fantastic to observe.

The Africa Startup Initiative Program (ASIP), established by telecom behemoth Telecel, aims to support the next generation of early-stage African tech startups that are upending important industry verticals like FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, Climate-tech, eCommerce, Digital Health, and CleanTech, Mobility, Micro-leasing, and digitizing the informal economy.

"We are very pleased with the great effort that would have been placed into this cohort 3 of the ASIP Accelerator Program bolstered by SBC AfriTech - we have remarkable startups with groundbreaking and positively disruptive approaches to tackling the African challenges that have set out to treat and built their Startups around," said Eleanor Azar, Executive Deputy of the Cohort and ASIP Director. Additionally, we are quite happy that there are now more female founders. And to those who weren't selected among the top 10, we wish you the very best of success. You should be quite proud of yourself for beating out more than 2,000 applicants for the cohort 3 program.

AWS, Freshworks, Google, and Firstbase are a few additional partners, along with the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) and AWS.

A comprehensive coaching and support program worth $750,000 USD will be provided to participants over the course of three months in order to expedite their growth and rewards. Additionally, startups will have access to the worldwide Accelerator Squared platform which offers a comprehensive pool of resources, group workshops, 1:1 mentoring, cohesive discussions with Innovators in Residence, and engage online forums with pioneers from around the world.

Startups will be housed at the D-hub, a facility commissioned by DER/FJ, during the program's time in Dakar, Senegal.

Program Director Henry Ojour said, "We're pleased about the calibre of businesses in this cohort. About 30% of them had previously applied, 60% had done so on the advice of an alumni founder, and 50% had monthly incomes of more than $50,000. Over 12 verticals are being built by Cohort 3 companies, which have a 30% female-founder ratio. It will be 13 weeks of significant advancement and influence. Added he.

We are pleased to reveal that the three startups will be a part of ASIP Cohort 3 in 2023: A ground-breaking Kenyan fintech platform called Kyanda Africa offers simple and dependable money transfer options for both people and corporations. The startup's infrastructure of operators, API gateway, and different access methods, including USSD, mobile apps, and WhatsApp Chatbots, allow the services to be tailored to the needs of the users.

A Nigerian SaaS platform called PharmaServ automates the process of placing sales orders, monitoring the effectiveness of the sales force and tying up incoming purchase orders, reimbursements, and invoicing for medical brands. For the vast majority of regional businesses in developing markets, it is a labor-intensive approach that is still largely manual.

We ship dozens of orders per month across Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire using the online marketplace Sodishop which is present in 4 countries in West Africa.

A Ghanaian GreenTech firm named BD Garbage blends sustainability with fintech to reclaim plastic waste from local communities. Customers can easily deposit plastic in the ocean into their mobile wallets and claim credit for it thanks to their Digicycle product. This currency may be used to buy data bundles, airtime, groceries, office supplies, and medical insurance.

Utilizing solar-powered divided air conditioners that can reach -2°C, Limawa, a Senegalese-founded company that is based in Côte d'Ivoire, seeks to address the concerns of food conservation and transportation. For the cold chain business, Limawa offers an inventive and economical replacement for industrial compressors. Trucks, shipping containers, and trailers can all use this approach.

A Nigerian website called Parkwell lets landlords list their parking spaces for maximum utilization and connects vehicles with available, secure parking places. For a seamless experience, the virtual parking platform links mobile to parking facilities and integrates them.

Another Nigerian company, Jand2Gidi, provides "Logistics As A Service" to B2B and B2B2C clients whose users are involved in international trade. After over a decade of developing strong, cutting-edge logistics services and last-mile home delivery, they have established shipping APIs to offer identical hassle-free, accessible, and quantifiable shipping services to its B2B merchants in order to help them to grow quicker.

By making funding simple and available to all transportation professionals, Moja Ride from Côte d'Ivoire has made it its mission to allow better and cleaner mobility services to African cities. By utilizing Moja Ride's cutting-edge digital fare settlement and booking technology, drivers and transportation providers can quickly and effectively qualify for new car loans and auto repairs.

A Moroccan technology business called SafeTrack offers irrigation systems that use 75% less water while costing 20% less than those of its rivals. Their IoT geolocation and monitoring solution is completely mobile, has easy maintenance, and doesn't need any IT infrastructure. consists of domestically built cloud software, revalued cellphones, sensors, and other cheap gadgets.

The AI platform from Ghana's Chestify AI Labs provides a very accurate algorithm for identifying diseases shown on chest X-rays. Chestify's mission is to aggressively address the socio-economic and health distress caused by the inadequate radiology power grid and the lack of radiologists in Africa. Two-thirds of the world's population of more than 5 billion people lack direct connections to a radiologist and radiologic diagnostic runtime environments.

Yoonema is a Senegalese social e-commerce site that provides e-buyers looking for high-quality commodities and B2B players who provide a comprehensive international e-commerce experience to their customers a seamless, distinctive, and streamlined experience.

At a Demo Day on May 25, 2023, when company founders will present their revolutionary ideas to a large audience of journalists, investors, portfolio companies, and industry stakeholders, the ASIP Accelerator hosted by SBC AfriTech will come to an end.

Distributed in favor of Startupbootcamp AfriTech by APO Group.

About Startupbootcamp AfriTech:

Startupbootcamp The first pan-African startup accelerator with multiple corporate backings, AfriTech, was introduced in 2017. We manage top-notch accelerator programs and collaborate with some of the continent's most innovative entrepreneurs. We give clients access to our extensive network of business associates, financiers, and mentors. Visit www.Startupbootcamp.org to learn more.

About Africa Startup Initiative:

Moh Damush, CEO of the Telecel Group, established the ASIP initiative as a CSR endeavor. The ASI Program makes a significant contribution to the African Continent by exposing new companies to international organizations and bridging the skills and knowledge necessary for them to attract partners who can enhance their startups. 

About Telecel Group:

The Telecel Group has four business lines that are all related to the telecom sector: Telecel Mobile, which owns and runs several telecom companies in Africa and Europe; Telecel Global Services; Telecel Play; and the Africa Startup Initiative Program, which supports creative startups in Africa and offers resellers, enterprise, and digital security services. Visit http://TelecelGroup.com for additional details about the Telecel Group program.

About DER/FJ:

President Macky Sall established the DER/FJ institution in 2018 to promote entrepreneurs across Senegal. It is governed by the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal. The D-hub incubator was established to provide this support across both financial and non-financial resources, with a focus on industries that involve technology and innovation. 

About FMO:

The Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank is known as FMO. FMO fosters sustained private market growth in underdeveloped nations and transition economies by funding ambitious initiatives and business owners. FMO has a nearly 50-year track record of enabling individuals to use their abilities and enhance their quality of life, and the organization firmly believes that a robust private sector promotes both economic and social growth. The three industries that FMO concentrates on are financial services, energy, and agriculture, food & water. FMO is one of the biggest bilateral private sector construction banks in the world with contracted collateral of EUR 9.3 billion encompassing over 85 countries. Please visit www.FMO.nl for additional details.