Oslo based Accelerator ‘Katapult’ has announced its plan to launch an African hub and accelerator program in East and West Africa towards the second half of the year. Katapult Accelerator is a Norwegian accelerator that works with startups who solve environmental and societal problems with artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain.
All selected startups for the accelerator program will receive a sum of $150,000 investment in exchange for eight percent (8%) equity. The program will last for three months. Katapult Accelerator aims to establish an office in Africa in the second half of this year as they are currently looking for local partners.
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According to Co-founder and managing partner, Haakon Brunell, the accelerator has received over 1000 applications from African entrepreneurs across four cohorts, he also added that due to a high number of applications, Africa was the “second biggest continent” after the EU. He said African startups will benefit more if they are accelerated in their home markets due to factors like local market knowledge. “For some companies, it makes more sense to be accelerated closer to their core markets.”
Katapult Accelerator earlier selected three African startups last year- from Kenya, Egypt and Tunisia to join its third cohort, making up a total of 12 startups from around the world. The three are Kenyan banking solution — FinAccess, Egyptian edtech — PraxiLabs and Tunisian tech