Nnamdi Emefo is the Founder of Afriskaut. In his words:
I started Afriskaut because my childhood friend Ussa Buggu (now my co-founder), who was an insanely talented footballer could not find an opportunity to become professional. It dawned on me that this is the reality of thousands of Africans who have the talent and desire to showcase their skills to the world.
At Afriskaut, we built a system that converts football matches into player statistics & highlights. Today, Afriskaut has converted over 700 football match videos, collecting performance data on 8000+ players , 350+ academies in over 3 African countries. We have done this fully bootsrapped.
Little surprise that Nnamdi made the list of 10 innovative African startups selected into Venture Capital & Private Equity firm, Accelerate Africa‘s first-ever accelerator programme.
The first cohort consists of a diverse group of Founders (six from Nigeria, two from Kenya, and one each from Egypt and Eswatini):
- Afriskaut (Nigeria): An AI and data startup, led by Nmandi Emefo, Buggu Ussa, Joshua Osazuwa, Ogunkola Obafemi, and Eby Emenike, utilises proprietary technology to identify Africa’s top sporting talent;
- Agrails (Kenya): Co-founded by Mwenda Mugendi, Agrails is a cleantech company that builds AI-powered data systems to help organisations address and price climate risks and opportunities in Africa;
- Campus (Nigeria): Founded by Remi Dada, Campus is a proptech startup creating a workspace-sharing platform similar to Airbnb, simplifying office discovery, booking, and management for mid-sized and large teams across Africa;
- CDIAL AI (Nigeria): Led by Samuel Ogbonyomi, Alex Idowu, and Taye Odunfa, CDAIL is developing a conversational AI system that understands and speaks African languages;
- Checkups (Kenya): Moka Lantum and Renee Ngamau are behind Checkups, a healthtech company offering affordable and accessible healthcare to the uninsured and underserved through micropayments;
- Flickwheel (Nigeria): Henry Okafor (CEO), Steve Amire (COO), and Paul Edwards (CTO) are at the helm of Flickwheel, an autotech startup that helps car owners maintain their vehicles through on-demand repair credits, vetted technicians, and automated repair tracking;
- Juiceme (Eswatini): Founded by Sandile Diamini, Juiceme is an HRTech startup partnering with organisations employing blue-collar workers to provide access to earned wages via WhatsApp, eliminating the need to wait for payday;
- Messenger (Nigeria): Amanda Etuk and Essien Etuk created Messenger, a logistics startup that empowers delivery drivers to become entrepreneurs by offering ownership opportunities alongside income. Drivers can acquire their delivery vehicles through financing, thereby developing a stake in the value chain;
- PipeOps (Nigeria): Founded by Samuel Ogbonyomi, Alex Idowu, and Taye Odunfa, PipeOps is a DevOps provider that enables companies without cloud expertise to manage their cloud applications through automation;
- SETTLE (Egypt): Settle, founded by Kamil Sayour and Mostafa Mobarak, is a fintech startup that automates B2B payments, enabling clients pay all their suppliers efficiently.
The Accelerate Africa initiative was founded by Iyin Aboyeji (founder of Pan-African VC firm, Future Africa), and Mia von Koschitzky-Kimani (a general partner), to support early-stage African businesses.
Initially skeptical about the need for an African-specific accelerator, Aboyeji shared his change of heart at the launch of the Accelerate Africa:
For a long time, I told anyone who cared to listen that the Y-Combinator (YC) of Africa is YC, and there was no need for an African accelerator.
I’ve changed my mind.
Before now, we have mostly run successful pre-accelerator programs to help get founders into actual accelerator programs like YC and Techstars. Now, we are getting into the accelerator arena ourselves.”
Angel investors and venture capitalists will provide investments ranging from $250,000 to $500,000. However, unlike Y Combinator, participation in the Accelerate Africa program does not guarantee funding directly from the accelerator.
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Accelerate Africa is an eight-week program accelerating bold and visionary founders building global businesses to solve Africa’s biggest challenges.