Eleanor Azar and Kwadwo Baah Agyemang
TEN TOP Ghanaian startups have been allowed to pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of judges at this year’s Telecel African Startup Initiative Programme held at the Accra Digital Center by Startupboothcamp Afritech.
The ten startups, including Ametshop, BD Waste, Chestify, Ejumahub, Grow For Me, Pal, Shopa, Opanet, Treepz, and Swoove, all had their founders present to pitch their disruptive ideas to mentors to enable them to secure a place in the Telecel ASIP Cohort 3 programme scheduled for Senegal next year.
Telecel’s ASIP accelerated programme aims to support the next generation of early-stage African tech startups disrupting key industry verticals, including FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, eCommerce, Digital Health, and CleanTech, and provide participating startups with access to markets where Telecel mobile services on the continent.
Speaking at the opening ceremony held at the Accra Digital Center, the Telecel Executive Deputy and ASIP Director, Eleanor Azar, said: “The potential we see in Ghana is exponential, and we look forward to welcoming more Ghanaian startups to ASIP. The support of the Accra Digital Center to pursue our goals in Ghana and launch the ASIP Initiative has been instrumental, and we look forward to more events like this.”
Managing Director of the Ghana Digital Centre, Kwadwo Baah Agyemang, in his remarks, expressed satisfaction with the use of the Ghana Digital Centre (GDCL) to host the ASIP event.
According to him, it came at a time when GDCL was intensifying collaborations with key stakeholders to identify and create opportunities that accelerate the growth of digital startups, in line with its objective of fostering innovation and entrepreneurship through the provision of platforms for business incubation, business acceleration, digital research, and development programmes.
“We usually encourage startups to attend the country FastTrack events to enable them to get real-time feedback from our panel of experts. From our experience, about 20 percent of startups that attend the events usually make it to the final round. It is a fantastic opportunity to network with our investment team and gets more information about the programme,” said Henry Ojuor, the Director of the Accelerator Program.
Founded by Telecel Group CEO, Moh Damush, the Telecel Group ASIP is designed to develop new businesses across the continent by working with startups and early-stage companies to define their business strategy and secure funding. With the support of leading pan-African tech accelerator Startupbootcam AfriTech, the program has since 2021 empowered 21 businesses with a combined valuation of over US$80 million.
ASIP is supported by partners such as DER/FJ (a Department of the Republic of Senegal), the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), ENRICH in Africa (a European Union-funded project), AWS, Microsoft, and Google.