By Silas Apollo
Standard Chartered Kenya has partnered with iBizAfrica, a business incubator backed by Strathmore University in an effort to help women-led enterprises overcome challenges such as societal bottlenecks and financing limits.
The 12 weeks of training is expected to culminate in seven of the businesses managed by ladies receiving about Sh1.4 mn ($10,000) each in funding to grow their businesses.
Standard Chartered Women in Tech (WiT) supports female-led entrepreneurial teams with business management training, mentoring, and seed funding.
This year’s top 15 teams of the “women in tech program” were picked from a pool of over 250 startups that applied for the program from different sectors, including agritech, fintech, the healthcare industry, mobility tech, disability tech and the construction industry, which is an increase from the previous cohorts, where 10 businesses were incubated and five startups per cohort each received funding.
The shortlisting criteria required the selected teams to demonstrate capacity in execution, showcase potential to solve socio-economic challenges in Kenya, and have a balanced skill set while ensuring that they leverage technology.
“We are delighted to have scaled the number from the previous cohorts, where 10 businesses were incubated,” Standard Chartered’s head of corporate affairs East Africa, Ms. Joyce Kibe, said. “Our continued funding of this program is as a result of research that indicated that female-led startups in Africa attracted less funding in 2022 compared to male-led startups in the region.”
Speaking during the selection of the top 15, Dr. Joseph Sevilla, director of iBizAfrica said the program has been designed to bridge the finance and capacity-building gap that women entrepreneurs face.
“I therefore also congratulate the successful beneficiaries and wish to encourage them to take advantage of this program as it will equip them with the necessary coping mechanisms and professional skills through training, mentorship, and financial literacy that will resultantly contribute to their survival and success,” he said.
And to align with the theme for this year, Embracing Equity in Women-Led Businesses, the business incubation training has been modeled around emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data, while additionally integrating the fundamentals of business idea conceptualization, strategy, formulation, and marketing, which will be key in moving businesses from incubation to sustainable ventures.
The Women in Tech Incubator Program is committed to being digital by design and supporting female entrepreneurs with technology to grow their businesses.
The 15 enterprises that will be starting the 12 weeks of mentorship at iBizAfrica the Women in Tech 2023 include Ecorich Solutions Limited, Imani Health Wallet, Sol Active (fusion), Saidiwa (squad) Rides, Ento Farm, as well as AgriTech Analytics.
Others are Techtenum Minds LTD, MyAfya Africa, Rhea Soil Health Management Limited, Know Learning Limited (Recess), Sign with us, Acre-insights, Instruct Africa, Panacare and Tynka Global.
Since its inception, the program has trained more than 10 small and medium businesses leveraging on technology by offering mentorship, advisory, coaching, networking opportunities, access to seed capital, and investor forums that help mold their businesses to international standards.
50 start-ups have participated to date and 25 have been awarded over KES 1.2 million (USD 10,000) in seed funding. 50 businesses have so far gone through the incubation process with the first five cohorts attracting over 2,000 applications.
