Early-stage African start-ups that have created digital solutions aimed to resolve to societal challenges are invited to apply for the second edition of Accelerate Africa, which aims to help start-ups with development support and fundraising.

Run in partnership with business development organisations, Future Africa and Prosper Africa, Accelerate Africa is an eight-week programme aimed to help innovative start-up founders who are building businesses to solve some of Africa’s biggest challenges, by accelerating their progress and fine-tuning their solutions.

The programme culminates in a demo day where participants are given the opportunity to raise seed capital from some of Africa’s renowned investors and venture capital firms.

The programme seeks 10 start-up founders across all corners of Africa.

After over a decade of supporting several African-focused founding teams, the accelerator says it has identified five critical areas of support, which participant are required to focus on – to be implemented with help from some of the top experts in these fields.

The focus areas are:

• Storytelling – participants will learn to craft a compelling mission, vision and story of impact.
• Talent – learning to assemble, motivate, and lead a high performing team.
• Product development – build a product that customers can’t live without.
• Fundraising – receive fundraise opportunity from the world’s best investors on demo day.
• Business development – founders learn how to navigate market competition and increase revenues.

“The programme provides intensive guidance, mentorship, and resources for early stage African Founders,” according to a statement.

“After over a decade of supporting several Africa-focused start-up founding teams, we have identified five critical areas of support to focus on during the programme, alongside some of the top experts in these fields. Participants will be prepared for global scale through accelerator programmes such as Y-Combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars.”

Accelerate Africa is a continental organisation dedicated to fostering economic growth, social development, and sustainable job creation across Africa.

With a steadfast focus on empowering start-up founders, emerging SMEs, and entrepreneurs, its mission is to support the Africa Union Agenda 2063 and the successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area to achieve the goals of the Africa We Want initiative.

Prospective business founders can apply on the Accelerate Africa website