African entrepreneurs are invited to apply for the next ShelterTech accelerator from Habitat for Humanity.
The ShelterTech Sub-Saharan Africa accelerator program, run by the global non-profit Habitat for Humanity, is now accepting proposals from entrepreneurs with scalable solutions to today’s affordable housing concerns.
ShelterTech is an affordable housing innovation platform that works across sectors, industries, and geographies to support and grow cutting-edge products and services that can help low-income households improve their living conditions. Since its debut accelerator program in 2017, the platform has sponsored over 70 startups globally, with the first African edition taking place in 2018.
The Hilti Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, Dow, Keith V. Kiernan Foundation, Dotson Family Fund, and J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation are among the sponsors of the program. The program will be delivered in collaboration with Plug & Play.
“What makes ShelterTech’s Sub-Saharan Africa accelerator special is that it brings together multiple verticals – such as prop-tech, novel materials, circular economy, and smart cities – around a single theme: affordable housing.” This allows us to be more creative in building a tailored curriculum that may maximize entrepreneurs’ learning about the ecosystem while also opening them up to greater growth and funding opportunities,” said Nicolas Chow, Plug and Play’s EMEA director for sustainability.
ShelterTech helps companies develop solutions in areas such as finance, labor, materials, land, markets, energy, and water and sanitation.
“The great potential of innovation in addressing low-income markets was demonstrated by our 2018 Kenya accelerator.” The moment has come to broaden our platform throughout the region. While governments try to recover from the epidemic, Africa’s housing crisis persists, with 238 million people living in slums and informal settlements, according to Patrick Kelley, vice-president of Habitat’s Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter.
“Identifying and investing in the emergence of firms that can make housing more cheap, sustainable, and safe is one way we can address this challenge.”
Applications are open here until June 9.
