Vodacom Tanzania has launched a new season of its Digital Accelerator program, a company initiative designed to identify innovative start-ups and support these with opportunities.

This comes after the 2020-2021 cohort of the Vodacom Digital Accelerator program successfully completed their period in the program.

Speaking during the launch, Nguvu Kamando, Vodacom Tanzania Digital and VAS Director said, “Innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit are key ingredients for achieving the goal of a strong digital economy in Tanzania. Playing an enabling role is central to our mission. As such, we are always looking for collaborations and innovations that will fulfil this goal. We are justifiably proud and dedicated to our collaboration with Smart Lab to run the accelerator program for the benefit of innovative start-ups.”

Kamando added: “We had a great experience working alongside Smart Lab providing mentorship, technical assistance and overall support. The success of the program is really the progress that the start-ups have made since graduating which includes raising additional funding from investors, completing product development, and growing their teams so that they can execute faster and better.”

The Accelerator Program is aimed at start-ups operating in Fintech, Edutech, Healthtech, entertainment, tourism, agriculture, cybersecurity and e-commerce.

Vodacom Tanzania said for entrants to be considered eligible, they must meet several criteria including:

• You should be 18 and above

• Start-ups should demonstrate traction, ideally between Seed and Series A stages in Tanzania market.

• You should be building a scalable product or service with a significant total addressable market and a defensible growth model.

• Start-ups should be serving the Fintech, Edutech, Healthtech, entertainment, tourism, agriculture, cybersecurity and e-commerce sectors.

The new season comes after a successful culmination of the previous season’s time in the program.

The 2020/21 group finalists were Smart Class, an edtech platform; Hashtag Pools, an ecommerce operator; Ninsiima e-Dispensary and MyHi which deals in health incurance services who were filtered out of an initial field of 500 applicants from 18 regions.

Vodacom Tanzania explained that for the new season, selected start-ups will go through an initial program that includes mentoring from experienced Vodacom staff, Smart Lab staff, and other respected professional mentors. Start-ups will also receive technology and creative support to launch and grow their start-ups from Smart Lab - which is a top tech and media company in Africa. 

“After the initial period, participants will get marketing strategy and support, business connection, partnership, and funding after presenting their progress to a panel of investors and associates. Further, the start-ups will have access to co-working space and hosting assistance. Vodacom will also leverage its wide customer base to enable the selected start-ups to conduct market research and product development activities,” the company added.

Elaborating on the upcoming season, Edwin Bruno, CEO and founder of Smart Codes said, “It is our vision to apply technology to have an impact in Africa and our mission is to empower brands, so we are extremely proud and grateful to partner with a company like Vodacom Tanzania whose own purpose ties in so well with us. Working together to create a platform for the tech savvy youth to build their brand, we look forward to reaching more Tanzanian start-ups and empowering the next generation of business innovation.”