African startups seem to be in the news a lot this week. First comes news of World Bank Group launching a business acceleration program.
The World Bank Group has launched XL Africa, a five-month business acceleration program designed to support the 20 most promising digital start-ups from Sub-Saharan Africa.
As a part of the program the start-ups will receive mentoring from global and local experts, learn through a tailor-made curriculum, increase their regional visibility, and get access to potential corporate partners and investors. With support from prominent African investment groups, XL Africa will help the 20 selected start-ups attract early stage capital between $250,000 and $1.5 million.
“Digital start-ups are important drivers of innovation in Africa,” says Makhtar Diop, Vice President for the Africa Region at the World Bank. “To scale and spread new technologies and services beyond borders, they need an integrated ecosystem that provides access to regional markets and global finance; pan-African initiatives like XL Africa play a critical role by linking local start-ups with corporations and investors across the continent.”
How to launch your startup with World-Bank support
The second is the news of “6 artificial intelligence startups in Africa to look out for [Digital All Stars]”
Digital All Stars is a series of articles which aims to celebrate the best of South African digital. The articles, which will appear on Memeburn and Ventureburn, recognise and celebrate South Africa’s best digital entrepreneurs, business people, advertisers, and media professionals among others.
In this piece we take a look at some interesting African startups involved in developing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. The six featured include:
- DataProphet
- Clevva
- Aerobotics
- Kudi.ai
- Stockshop.co.za
- Aajoh