Six African startups have been selected for the third cohort of the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund.
The names of the six companies were announced last Wednesday (12 December) in a post by GSMA’s Mobile for Development Utilities and Ecosystem Accelerator head Max Cuvellier, along with those of five other startups — from Indonesia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Sri Lanka.
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The African startups hail from Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana.
The six are: agritech and mobile financial services startup AgroCenta, Ivorian mobile-supported plastic recycling solution Coliba, Yaounde-based healthtech GiftedMom, edtech Eneza Education, medical identity solution KEA Medicals from Cotonou, Benin and Addis Ababa based on-demand home services firm Taskmoby.
The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund was launched in 2016 and is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Australian government and the GSMA and its members.
The GSMA will invest between $140 000 and $349 000 (equity-free) in each of the selected startups. Those selected must be able to match half of the funding requested.
The accelerator includes an annual bootcamp and bimonthly clinics. Mentoring and support in the form of partnering with mobile operator partners is also provided.
GSMA #EcosystemAccelerator selects 6 African #startups to join the #EAInnovationFund!
— Sam Ajadi (@sam_ajadi) December 12, 2018
1⃣ @agrocenta (#Ghana)
2⃣ @coliba_ci (#CoteDIvoire)
3⃣ @taskmoby (#Ethiopia)
4⃣ @EnezaEducation (#CoteDIvoire)
5⃣ @theGiftedMom (#Cameroon)
6⃣ #KEAMedicals (#Benin)https://t.co/mZp5Y9ttSs pic.twitter.com/RJsMBh3n8U
Last week, German Venture capital firm Greentec Capital Partners announced that AgroCenta — which Disrupt Africa reported last Friday (14 December) had closed a $650 000 seed round — had received a $250 000 GSMA Ecosystem Grant.
It is still unclear how much the other five startups have received. Ventureburn sought clarification on this from the accelerator but had not received a response at the time of publication.
