Africa-focused tech accelerator Startupbootcamp AfriTech, together with founding partner and telecommunications firm Telecel Group, has selected candidates to participate in the accelerator program, Africa Start-up Initiative Program (ASIP).

According to program organisers, the intrinsic value of start-ups in Africa lies in their ability to build fast and effective solutions to pressing challenges – and now, more recently, the ability to scale across borders.

ASIP Accelerator, through its alliance with DER/FJ, helps entrepreneurs fine-tune their business models and facilitate entry into new markets such as Senegal.

DER/FJ was established to advance entrepreneurship for women in Senegal, and the West African country’s youth.

Senior Innovation Lead Adrien Schwarz said; “We are impressed with the work that the ASIP and Startupbootcamp AfriTech are doing and are excited that there were three times more Francophone founders compared to the previous years. This validates the calibre of start-ups in Francophone countries and shows that their exposure to acceleration has improved. It is also wonderful to see the progress that the past Senegalese start-ups namely Proxalys, Parcsmart, and Yobante have made”.

Founded by Telecel, ASIP aims to support the next generation of early-stage African tech start-ups that are disrupting key industry verticals that include FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, Climate-tech, e-Commerce, Digital Health, and CleanTech, Mobility, Micro-leasing, and digitising the informal economy.

Eleanor Azar, Executive Deputy of the Group and ASIP Director said: “We are very proud of the great effort that was put into this cohort 3 of the ASIP Accelerator Program powered by SBC AfriTech - we have exceptional start-ups with innovative and positively disruptive ways of treating the African challenges that they have set out to solve and build their start-ups around. We are also exceptionally proud that the number of female founders has increased. And to those who did not make it into the top 10, we wish you all the luck, you should be very proud that you have come out on top of more than 2,000 applications received into the program in cohort 3.”

Other partners include the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), AWS, Freshworks, , Google, and Firstbase.

Organisers add that participants will receive an intensive three-month coaching and support program and benefits worth US$750,000.

Start-ups will also have access to the global Accelerator Squared platform which has a complete library of content, group workshops, 1:1 mentoring, collaborative sessions with Entrepreneurs in Residence, and invite-only discussion forums with founders from around the globe.

The program will take place in Dakar, Senegal and start-ups will be hosted at the D-hub, - a space commissioned by DER/FJ.

“We’re excited by the quality of start-ups in this cohort,” commented Program Director Henry Ojour. ”About 30% of them have applied before, 60% applied on the recommendations of an alumni founder and 50% of them have monthly revenues above $50,000.00. Cohort 3 companies are building in over 12 verticals we have a 30% female-founder ratio. It’s going to be 13 weeks of far-reaching progress & impact.”

The following start-ups will be joining the 2023 ASIP cohort 3:

Kyanda Africa is a revolutionary Kenyan Fintech platform that provides businesses and individuals with convenient and reliable money transfer solutions. The startup has a network of agents, API gateway, and various access channels such as USSD, Mobile App & WhatsApp Chatbots making the services customisable dependent on the users' needs

PharmaServ is a Nigerian SaaS product, which automates the process of sales orders, tracking sales team performance, and reconciling incoming purchase orders, payments, and invoices for health brands. This is a labor-intensive process that is still predominantly manual for most local companies in emerging markets.

Sodishop is a Malian marketplace, an online sales and purchase platform, present in four countries in West Africa, we deliver thousands of orders per month across Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire.

BD Waste is a Ghanaian GreenTech startup that combines Fintech and sustainability to recover Plastic waste from communities. Their Digicycle product allows customers to directly deposit plastic waste into their digital wallets and receive credit for it. This credit can be used to purchase data packages, airtime, food items, stationery, and health insurance.

Limawa, whose Senegalese founder operates in Côte d'Ivoire aims to tackle the issues of food conservation and transportation through solar-powered split air conditioners that can reach -2°C (designed in CI by our team). Limawa offers an innovative and cost-efficient alternative to industrial compressors for the cold chain industry. This solution is suitable for trucks, containers, and trailers.

Parkwell is a Nigerian online sharing platform that matches drivers with available, safe parking spaces and helps property owners list their parking spaces for optimum use. The digital parking platform integrates parking facilities and connects it to mobile for a seamless experience.

Jand2Gidi, also from Nigeria, offers ‘Logistics As A Service’ to B2B and B2B2C customers whose users are engaged in cross-border trade. They have built shipping APIs to provide the same hassle-free, transparent, and trackable shipping services to their B2B merchants to enable them grow faster after nearly a decade of building robust, cutting-edge freight forwarding and last mile delivery services

Moja Ride from Côte d'Ivoire has made its mission to enable better and cleaner mobility services to African cities by making financing easy and accessible for all transportation professionals. Drivers and transport companies can easily qualify for new car loans and car repairs by simply working with Moja Ride's advanced digital fare payment and booking technologies.

SafeTrack is a Moroccan technology startup that allows a 75% reduction in water consumption for irrigation at 20% of the price of its competitors. Their IOT solution of geolocation and monitoring is 100% mobile, has simple maintenance and does not require any IT infrastructure. Composed of revalued smartphones and sensors and other affordable devices, and a cloud software platform developed internally.

Chestify AI Labs from Ghana provides an AI platform that gives a highly accurate algorithm for diagnosing chest X-Ray pathologies. Two-thirds of the world's population of over 5 billion people with no access to a radiologist and radiologic diagnostic support tools and Chestify’s mission is to aggressively tackle the socio-economic and health distress created by inadequate radiology Infrastructure and the presence of fewer radiologists in Africa.

Yoonema is a Senegalese social e-commerce platform that offers a frictionless, unique, and simplified experience to e-buyers who desire quality products and B2B players who offer a full global e-commerce experience to their clients.

The ASIP Accelerator powered by SBC AfriTech will culminate in a Demo Day on 25 May 2023 where start-up founders will pitch their disruptive solutions to a broad audience of media, investors, corporate partners, and industry stakeholders.