Early-stage startup entrepreneurs across the continent are invited to submit their applications for the second iteration of Accelerate Africa, an accelerator that wants to fill the gap left by retreating global investors such as Y Combinator across Africa.
Organized in collaboration with Future Africa and Prosper Africa, Accelerate Africa is spearheaded by operator VCs Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani. Both have extensive experience in building, funding, and advising numerous African founding teams such as:
- Andela
- Flutterwave
- Moove, and
- Daystar Power
Accelerate Africa’s inaugural cohort will span eight weeks and accept 10 pre-seed and seed-stage startups from various sectors, hailing from any of Africa’s 54 nations. Throughout the program, Accelerate will collaborate with founders to enhance their storytelling abilities, strengthen their teams, and navigate business and product development challenges.
During the initial six weeks, the program will operate simultaneously in two cities:
- Nairobi and
- Lagos
overseen by Koschitzky-Kimani and Aboyeji.
In the last two weeks, five startups from Nairobi will converge with the teams in Lagos. The first cohort is scheduled to take place from April to May 2024.
After the accelerator program, participating startups will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors during demo day. This audience will include angel investors who typically provide funding in the range of $25,000 to $50,000, as well as Series A and Series B investors.
Future Africa, with a cheque size ranging from $250,000 to $500,000, will also be present. However, according to Co-Founder Aboyeji, while the accelerator is not a guaranteed pathway into Future Africa’s portfolio, they may choose to invest or opt not to do so.
Accelerate Africa will also be looking for founders with lived experience, solving the kinds of problems that can become global businesses.
Applications are open here.
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