Safaricom Launches Accelerator Program

Safaricom, M-PESA Africa, and Sumitomo Corporation, a Fortune 500 global trading and business investment giant, have jointly announced the launch of the Spark Accelerator program which is designed to catalyze the growth and scaling of early-stage tech startups.

Spanning three months, the Spark Accelerator program is set to offer a comprehensive blend of support for the selected startups. Participants will benefit from a range of services including specialized training, mentorship from industry experts, funding opportunities, and go-to-market support.

In its initial phase, the Spark Accelerator will focus primarily on startups in the Fintech and Content sectors. It will take an ecosystem-based approach to identify and accelerate the startups by leveraging a team of experts who understand market dynamics, emerging tech and who are keen to enable continuous innovation.

The Spark Accelerator program is in line with our ambition to be a purpose led technology company. With the accelerator, we are offering more than just capital injection which is what we did previously with Spark Fund. We have restructured the program to address the challenges that hinder early startups from growing to scale, Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom said.

“Sumitomo Corporation’s wide range of business experience will contribute to create innovative businesses and support the expansion of the startup ecosystem. Through this program, we will contribute to the development of the African economy, human resource development, and the realization of a more prosperous life for the people,” said Katsuya Kashiki, General Manager, Smart Communications Platform Business Division.

Participating startups are set to benefit with access to technical support to develop mini-apps embedded into Safaricom’s M-PESA Super App, empowering them to reach more than 4 million customers who use the app.

The accelerator program will culminate in an investor demo day for the startups to pitch for investment from Safaricom and partner venture capital firms.

iHUB, a leading player in Kenya’s startup ecosystem and a subsidiary of Africa’s premier innovation hub, Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), has been named as the implementing partner for the Spark Accelerator. Other supporting partners for the program include Vodacom and AWS.