Vodacom Tanzania Plc, Managing Director Sitho Mdlalose
Dar es Salaam. Vodacom Tanzania Plc yesterday launched new season of its Digital Accelerator program in its effort to empower start-ups in the country.
Known as VodacomDigital Accelerator, the program empowers start-ups that have innovative solutions by facilitating them to realise their aspirations.
The launch of the new cohort follows the completion of the 2020-2021 group in the programme.
Vodacom Tanzania’s director for digital and value added services director Nguvu Kamando said the company was believes innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit were key ingredients for achieving the goal of a strong digital economy in Tanzania.
“As such, we are always looking for collaborations and innovations that will fulfil this goal. We are justifiably proud and dedicated to our collaboration with Smart Lab to run the accelerator programme for the benefit of innovative start-ups,” he said.
He said working alongside Smart Lab enables the provision of mentorship, technical assistance and overall support.
Start-ups that graduated have been able to raise additional funding from investors and complete product development. They have also been able to grow their teams so that they can execute faster and better.
The Accelerator Program is aimed at startups operating in fintech, edutech, healthtech, entertainment, tourism, agriculture, cybersecurity and e-commerce.
Apart from the aforementioned categories, the programme also seeks entrants who have 18 years and above; should have demonstrate traction between Seed and Series A stages in Tanzania market as well those that have built a scalable product or service with a significant total addressable market and a defensible growth model.
The 2020/21 group finalists were Smart Class, an edtechplatform; Hashtag Pools, an ecommerce operator; Ninsiimae-Dispensary and MyHiwhich deals in health incurance services who were filtered out of an initial field of 500 applicants from 18 regions.
According to Mr Kamando, for the new season, selected start-ups will go through an initial program that includes mentoring from experienced Vodacom staff, Smart Lab staff, and other respected professional mentors. They will also receive technology and creative support to launch and grow their start-ups from Smart Lab - which is a top tech and media company in Africa.
The chief executive officer and founder of Smart Codes, Mr Edwin Bruno, said the vision was to apply technology to have an impact in Africa
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