45 Startups Join the Village Capital’s Future of Work Africa Accelerator
The second iteration of the Future of Work Africa accelerator program has been launched by Moody’s Corporation and Village Capital, and 45 startups that are developing for-profit, market-based solutions for employment and education that can better prepare young people in sub-Saharan Africa have been chosen.
Selected businesses can access self-guided training, intensive virtual assistance, and mentorship through the Future of Work Africa accelerator.
The 45 startups, chosen from a pool of 196 applicants, come from 23 different countries and will be divided into two cohorts: a core cohort of 15 startups and an expanded cohort of 30 startups. These cohorts will participate in self-guided training, extensive virtual support, and mentoring relationships.
Each firm chosen for the accelerator will collaborate closely with investors, mentors, and potential customers and partners in order to scale their impact. They will use tools created to aid in their self-evaluation, such as Village Capital’s Abaca.
Below are the startups that make up the core cohort:
- Chuuse (Nigeria) is building a hybrid school to help African youths learn in-demand technology skills that companies need, specifically in the tech space
- ??Waape (Uganda) ??uses AI to connect teams to Africa’s top tech and creative talent
- Amplified Careers Centre (Zimbabwe) career counselling programs and services, career information materials, trainings and continuous support systems
- UmuravaWork (Rwanda) is a pan-African customised Freelance Talent Marketplace and Workforce Outsourcing Platform, connecting Africa’s Top Freelance Talents to jobs and projects in the in-demand sectors both locally and globally
- Talenteum (Mauritius) is a Pan-African platform designed to help companies source and employ remote-working teams based mainly in Africa
- Scalein (Nigeria) connects sales talent to opportunities across Africa within minutes
- Farwell Innovations Ltd (Kenya) develops and deploys web portals and end-to-end eLearning platforms to corporate organisations
- Stranerd (Nigeria) is a classroom management and exam preparation peer learning platform that enables easy, convenient and accessible learning
- LetaWera Technologies (Kenya) is a mobile application that enables customers to connect with gig service providers within their neighbourhoods conveniently
- Project CodeX (South Africa) is an upskilling institution that provides programming skills training to youth from under-resourced, underrepresented communities
- Fundis (Kenya) is a gig matching platform that connects clients to Africa’s informal sector workers enabling them to find & hire competent, vetted & certified artisans
- Onesha Technologies (Kenya) is a digital marketplace for SMEs to hire affordable, skilled, and vetted African freelancers and creatives on demand
- Twende Pamoja (DRC) is a social enterprise that works to alleviate extreme poverty by providing income-generating asset loans and training to low-income individuals.
- Kazi Remote (Kenya) is a social enterprise that leverages youth talent to provide digital services to companies in transcription, captions, subtitling, content writing, and translation on a gig-based model
- Eloh Enterprise (South Africa) is a mobile application that connects customers to accessible, reliable, pre-vetted service providers with just a tap/click on their smartphone
“Improving financial health and fostering a robust economy for young Africans depend on meaningful employment. Young Africans are expected to make up one-third of the 600 million young people who will enter the global labor market by 2030, thus there is a pressing need to reinforce the models that close the skills gap, improve employability, and prepare job candidates for the changing employment landscape. We’re happy to help entrepreneurs in the region who are already creating scalable solutions through this program, said Audrey Mate, Village Capital’s programme manager for Africa.
