Flapmax has announced twelve companies selected for the first cohort of the FAST Startup accelerator. The program, which is in partnership with Microsoft, was created to help strengthen and scale Africa’s digital ecosystem.
It begins on March 21st with participants from 6 different countries, serving 9 industries, and including 2 female founders.
The selected startups include:
- Kenya’s Silqu – Advanced prop tech platform in real estate and technology.
- Kenya’s Snark Health – Partner with your doctor. Leverage your data. Pay less.
- Kenya’s K-12 EdTech – Kindergarten to 12th-grade education app
- Kenya’s Taimba – East Africa’s first Data-driven food supply chain platform
- Nigeria’s Casa Technology – Online platform to buy and sell invoices for businesses in Africa
- Nigeria’s LegitCar – Building Africa’s biggest vehicle data service
- Nigeria’s Pade HCM – Automated HR for all African businesses
- Nigeria’s DayDone – eCommerce platform digitising the agriculture market
- Tanzania’s Tuamini La Maisha – Pediatric Oncology services
- Ghana’s Wala Digital Health – Platform for hospitals to access blood and save lives
- Uganda’s KaCyber Technologies – Seeking to make Seamless Mobility a reality
- Egypt’s VAIS – Comprehensive precision agriculture platform powered by AI & earth observation
The cohort will engage in a broad range of activities, including training, business development, cloud & AI integration, fundraising and community building events designed to help them scale rapidly and sustainably.
Microsoft engineering team members will work one-on-one with participants on co-innovation projects ranging from product integrations to new offerings.
With the help of the Flapmax engineering team, the startup founders will access new technology tools and services.
Participants will benefit from up to $250,000 in Microsoft Azure cloud credits, as well as access to Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, including access to OpenAI APIs.
More than 800 applications from 25 countries in Africa were received for the first FAST accelerator cohort. The countries with the most applicants included Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, and Egypt.
What they said:
“Microsoft believes that African startups are well-placed to become a cornerstone of the African digital economy, with relevant solutions to local societal challenges. Participation in the FAST startup accelerator program will help these entrepreneurs capture available funding opportunities and plan for growth and future market expansion,” says Gerald Maithya, Startups Lead, Microsoft Africa Transformation Office.
“In partnership with the Microsoft team, we are bringing together a unique mix of technology business and innovative entrepreneurs to build and scale societally impactful solutions that enable digital transformation across industries, as well as an introduction to cloud and AI-integration tools designed to unlock new value for their businesses,” says Dave Ojika, founder and CEO, Flapmax.
