Startupbootcamp set to host FastTrack tours across EA in March

Startupbootcamp (SBC) is set to host its FastTrack tours across East Africa this coming March. The SBC team, mentors and sponsors will use the tour as an opportunity to meet the most suitable early-stage companies in the region interested in joining the 2018 programme.

The FastTrack tours will take place across three East African countries namely: Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. In Kigali, Rwanda the event will take place on 19 March 2018, in Kampala, Uganda the event will be held on 21 March 2018 and in Nairobi, Kenya it will be held on 23 March 2018.

Startupbootcamp Cape Town kicks off their 2018 by hosting a FastTrack world tour that will include 19 FastTracks across the world in search of the next generation of Africa-focused startup talent. SBC will hold the FastTracks in various cities across the globe between February and May 2018.

Philip Kiracofe, co-founder and CEO of the SBC Cape Town programme, said:

“We think of Africa as the Cradle of Innovation and the Cradle of Disruption. The non-negotiable, incontrovertible trend is that the population is increasing and as a fundamental necessity for survival, innovation must happen. Innovation will happen.

The fact is that there is going to be a level of disruption in Africa that is unrivalled in history. There is no other place on the planet where they’ve dealt with this crisis that we see as an opportunity.

It is happening here and will continue to happen here for the rest of the century and we are not just discovering and scaling the startups that will disrupt the necessary industries, we’re fuelling them.

We’re finding people, creating solutions and we’re way ahead of the rest of the world in many ways. For example, in the U.S., people are still cottoning on to digital cash, while Africa has been doing it for years,” states Kiracofe.

SBC launched its first-ever Africa-based programme last year. Building on the success of its inaugural 2017 Cape Town tech venture accelerator program, SBC Cape Town now embarks upon its FastTrack tour for 2018 – sourcing top-tier tech startups to join the programme’s second year.

The first-ever Cape Town Accelerator was a success with 32 corporate agreements including pilots and proof-of-concepts, signed during the accelerator.

“To sign 32 agreements is above average for any Startupbootcamp programme in the network. However, when compared to other first-time programmes, SBC Cape Town is the top performing programme. Even in very mature markets such as the US and Europe it generally takes 3 years for a programme to find its stride. We surpassed expectations in our very first year and this is unprecedented across the global Startupbootcamp footprint,” noted Kiracofe.