The Harvard-AWS Accelerator Program Accepts 11 Student-owned African Startups
11 of the 25 businesses chosen for the first NextGen Accelerator by Harvard Innovation Labs and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are African.
The NextGen Accelerator, a two-week founder boot camp, is open to early-stage student entrepreneurs from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and universities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Every day, founders attend courses at the Harvard Innovation Labs on topics such as consumer research, market validation, pitching, fundraising, and leadership skills.
“We are thrilled to welcome student founders from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and the United States to Boston,” said Matt Segneri, executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs. “These students are working on a diverse range of inspiring products and services, and we are excited to see what they achieve both during and after the NextGen Accelerator.”
The Schultz Family Foundation has contributed funds to the 25 participating ventures to assist with lodging, food, and travel expenses.
As part of their mission to increase the number of black and other underrepresented entrepreneurs in the startup ecosystem, AWS will provide NextGen Accelerator participants with access to AWS professionals as well as $5,000 in AWS credits.
Here are the 11 startups chosen for the 2023 NextGen Accelerator:
Ghana
The agritech startup FeatheryCare (University of Ghana),
The producer of organic soil booster Sabon Sake (Ashesi University),
The mobile wallet Hurupay (Ashesi University),
The farmer financing solution LbH LC (University of Ghana).
Kenya
The parking app Parksby (from the University of Nairobi),
The e-health business AfyaBridge,
The health-tech company Tawi Digital Health (also from the University of Nairobi).
Rwanda
HiQ Africa, a Rwandan logistics startup (African Leadership University),
South Africa
Puno, a South African fintech company (University of the Witwatersrand),
Tanzania
Smartdarasa, a Tanzanian augmented reality startup (University of Dar es Salaam),
Nigeria
Acceede, a Nigerian payments platform (Federal University of Technology).
