AWS fintech Africa accelerator is an online and equity-free 10-week program aimed at supporting pre-seed and seed stage fintech startups.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has opened applications for its inaugural AWS Fintech Africa Accelerator.

The AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator is an online and equity-free 10-week programme, aimed at pre-seed and seed stage fintech founders operating in Africa. 

The focus is for those founders building solutions to solve challenges in payments, open/embedded finance, digital banking, blockchain, decentralised finance, fintech-as-a-service, and other fintech categories.

Eligible participants have until 27 April to apply to the upcoming accelerator cohort.

The equity-free accelerator programme seeks to support fintech start-ups with, as the company says, ‘everything from technology, product development, go-to-market strategy, and preparing founders for the nuances and complications of fundraising’.

AWS says the virtual accelerator is designed to give chief executive officers and chief technology officers (CTOs) the necessary tools for unlocking meaningful growth and scale, while also connecting them with mentors and a global network of AWS Startup Loft Accelerator alumni.

“The accelerator will work closely with CTOs to prepare them with everything from recruiting world-class talent to managing an engineering team, building a minimum viable product, and design principles for cloud architecture,” says AWS.

Cohort participants are also eligible to join the AWS Activate programme, which will provide each startup with up to $25 000 in AWS Activate Credits, along with an array of other services, in addition to exclusive offers from AWS’ partner companies.

The programme is supported by numerous organisations, including the Africa Fintech Summit, Lateral Frontiers, Unicorn Growth Capital, Vestbee and Stripe.