Kenyan tech startups in their early stages can apply to the Spark Accelerator, a program run by Sumitomo Corporation, M-PESA Africa, and Safaricom, to help them grow faster in the fintech and content industries.
To support and invest in late-seed and early-growth startups based in Kenya, Safaricom launched the Spark Venture Fund back in 2014.
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The fund was designed to leverage Safaricom’s resources to help the companies flourish.
Six Kenyan startups—Sendy, Lynk, Ajua, Eneza, iProcure, and FarmDrive—were each given an average of US$175,000 by a US$1 million fund. A second fund was planned in 2020, though not much was heard of it after that.
Applications for the next edition are now being accepted thanks to a partnership between M-PESA Africa and Sumitomo Corporation, a renowned Fortune 500 global trading and business investment organization. A combination of training, mentorship, investment, and go-to-market support will be offered throughout the three-month accelerator program to help startups expand scale and position them for long-term success.
Using an ecosystem-based approach to find and accelerate the companies by employing a team of specialists that understand market dynamics, and emerging tech, are eager to enable ongoing innovation, and will initially aid fintech and content entrepreneurs.
To create mini-apps integrated into Safaricom’s M-PESA Super App, participating entrepreneurs will receive access to technical help, enabling them to reach the app’s over four million users.
Furthermore, M-PESA Africa will provide companies aiming to broaden their international reach with knowledge, market research and insights, and other forms of capacity support. Beyond the three-month initiative, the support will be extended, giving program startups access to M-PESA’s eight markets more than 60 million clients, and 5 million enterprises.
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The accelerator program will conclude with an investor demo day where the startups will present to partner venture capital firms and Safaricom for investment. iHub, a division of Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) and a trailblazer in Kenya’s startup scene, will serve as the Spark Accelerator’s implementation partner.
