{"id":11224,"date":"2023-12-14T14:40:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T14:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=11224"},"modified":"2023-12-14T14:40:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T14:40:57","slug":"techstars-to-invest-1-4m-in-12-african-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2023\/12\/14\/techstars-to-invest-1-4m-in-12-african-startups\/","title":{"rendered":"Techstars to Invest $1.4m in 12 African Startups"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Techstars Accelerator Program has unveiled plans to invest a total of $1.4 million in 12 African startups as part of the second cohort of its pan-African accelerator program. In collaboration with Lagos-based innovation program ARM Labs, the 14-week immersive program will see Techstars invest up to $120,000 in each startup, providing access to over $400,000 in cash equivalent hosting, accounting, legal support, and other benefits totaling more than $5 million.<\/p>\n

The selected startups will receive tailored mentorship, world-class company-building support, lifetime access to the Techstars worldwide network, and targeted interactions with potential investors. Partnering with ARM Labs exposes founders to ARM\u2019s local network, research, insights, and financial advisory expertise.<\/p>\n

The 12 startups, selected from over a thousand applications, cover various verticals in Sub-Saharan Africa, including FinTech, Logistics, E-commerce, HealthTech, Renewable Energy, and the Future of Work. The cohort includes companies from Ghana, Nigeria, and East Africa, with at least one female co-founder in four teams. Some of the selected startups are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 24Seven:<\/strong> An asset-light marketplace enabling small businesses and convenience stores to order inventory on credit with one-hour doorstep delivery.<\/li>\n
  2. Beauty Hut:<\/strong> A platform bridging the gap between beauty brands and consumers through efficient product distribution and marketing channels, leveraging e-commerce web-store and mobile app.<\/li>\n
  3. Eight Medical:<\/strong> An end-to-end platform connecting users to emergency medical resources, reducing waiting times from an average of 3 hours to 10 minutes or less.<\/li>\n
  4. GetEquity:<\/strong> Facilitates access to investment opportunities by SEC-accredited providers, reducing entry barriers through investment aggregation across various asset classes.<\/li>\n
  5. JumpnPass:<\/strong> A mobile self-checkout platform for modern retail, allowing shoppers to use smartphones to scan product barcodes, pay for items, and skip long queues.<\/li>\n
  6. One Plan:<\/strong> Helps workers in Africa\u2019s informal economy create affordable financial plans, making it easier to start a retirement plan, access low-interest credit, and obtain health and life insurance cover.<\/li>\n
  7. PBR Life Sciences:<\/strong> Offers pharmaceutical, consumer healthcare, and medical device companies access to high-quality market data and insights.<\/li>\n
  8. PressOne Africa:<\/strong> Provides businesses with deeper insights into phone conversations with customers through a communication platform offering conversation intelligence and call monitoring.<\/li>\n
  9. Rana:<\/strong> Democratises access to clean and reliable solar systems for SMEs and residential customers through affordable long-term solar subscriptions.<\/li>\n
  10. Surge Africa:<\/strong> Enables instant cross-border transfers and reduces fees for individuals, micro-entrepreneurs, and MSMEs in Africa.<\/li>\n
  11. Swoove:<\/strong> Empowers logistics companies in emerging markets to digitise and scale their businesses with dispatch automation, fleet management, tracking, and telematics.<\/li>\n
  12. Veend:<\/strong> Enables individuals and businesses with verifiable income to access funds on-demand, addressing their needs for emergency funds or working capital.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Oyin Solebo, Managing Director, ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, emphasized the importance of providing comprehensive support, covering financial support, technical assistance, and access to networks for founders in the current market dynamics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Techstars Accelerator Program has unveiled plans to invest a total of $1.4 million in 12 African startups as part of the second cohort of its pan-African accelerator program. In collaboration with Lagos-based innovation program ARM Labs, the 14-week immersive program will see Techstars invest up to $120,000 in each startup, providing access to over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[291],"class_list":["post-11224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11248,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11224\/revisions\/11248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}