Norwegian accelerator Pangea launched its services in Kenya in January and in that time, the firm has highlighted plans to link start-ups to investors.
For last couple of weeks, Pangea has been assessing Africa-wide application from start-ups. The exercise, which came to end this week, recorded 407 applications. Most of the them originated from agri-based firms at 27 percent. This goes in line with growing interest in agricultural activities that have been shunned by the youth in the past. Fintech start-ups came in second with 15 percent of the total applications. Other key applications covered health, clean tech, education as well as renewable energy sectors.
Kenya and Nigeria made the lion’s share of the applications with 220 and 107 contributions respectively.
To assess sustainability and scalability, Pangea has partnered with ecosystem enablers to comb through the applications. At the moment, about 13.5 percent of applicants have a strong chance to grow. Pangea is also advocating for smart investment, matching start-ups with diaspora investors. The accelerator mentions that over 25.8 percent of the businesses have the capacity to scale regionally and globally.
Pangea’s task in picking start-ups that qualify for funding a 3-month milestone-based program that involves the top 40 start-ups from applications is underway. The training will be overseen by international and national investors and experts. The last, top three groups will be warded with an initial funding of up to US$50,000.
“The world community has defined 17 key challenges that must be solved to ensure a sustainable future. It is important to society, but it also represents one of the greatest business opportunities of our time as UN sustainability targets amounts to trillions of dollars,” says Jonas Tesfu, Managing Partner at Pangea Accelerator.
“Increasingly, entrepreneurs and innovators are looking for more structured and comprehensive platforms to start and scale their businesses. With the combination of Pangea’s global startup experience, investor networks and expertise, coupled with @iBizAfrica’s strong startup entrepreneurship, technology and research background, Pangea is set to provide the most robust skills, growth and funding programme” shared Bernard Chiira the incubator Manger at @iBizAfrica, Strathmore University.
By mid-2018, Pangea will launch a crowd-sourced investment platform that will create more channels for start-ups to get access to more funding.
