Yesterday [03/05/2018], GrowthAfrica and Malawi's mHub launched an accelerator program. With the support of UNDP and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Malawi.
Dubbed Growth Accelerators, the program "aims to support emerging entrepreneurs."
The program is aimed at startups that are already operational or post-revenue. An area GrowthAfrica has focused on for most of its past programs across East Africa.
"The Growth Accelerator program will thus start as an Entrepreneurship Challenge targeting start-up entrepreneurs with an innovative product or service on the market that demonstrates the potential to scale or those looking for investment to take their business to the next level."
The program will last for a year and 10 entrepreneurs will be selected from a pool of applicants. Each will "access up to USD 40,000 in financing through a matching grant or a private equity option."
The Global Accelerator Learning Initiative, GALI, report, released February this year, found that "over 25% of ventures rank direct funding as the most important, followed by network and skill-building." Thus, this program could be a stepping stone for many startups in Malawi looking to raise funding.
Vincent Kumwenda, the CEO of mHub, said that "it is important that we create support mechanisms and incentives to make SMEs become investment ready, scale and attain sustainability."
When GALI, released its report on the status of accelerator program in sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi didn't feature among the top 10 countries. Making the launch of Growth Accelerator timely. (Also see: These are the leading Ugandan accelerator programs).