Eight African Startups Selected to Join the Facebook Commerce Accelerator Programme

Back in August Facebook launched two 12-week accelerator programs for startups as the social juggernaut looks for new ideas and solutions to expand its commerce and connectivity efforts. Now eight innovative African tech startups, have been selected for the prestigious Facebook Commerce Accelerator Programme. 

The 12-week non-equity virtual programme aims to assist selected startups in improving their customer relations and creating a seamless shopping experience for users. 

Run by Facebook, a total of 36 startups from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America have been selected for the commerce accelerator programme. 

In an official press statement, Michael B. Huang, Head of Startup Programmes at Facebook, provides insight into the benefits and aim of the programme.

“Over the course of three months, we’re bringing together innovative commerce startups in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America to help create a unified shopping experience across all Facebook apps. Throughout the virtual program, the selected startups will have access to a dedicated Facebook mentor, comprehensive training, Facebook’s suite of products and technologies, and a valuable network of product experts and fellow founders to connect with.”

Facebook is supporting startups by connecting, training, and developing entrepreneurs who are focused on building the startup ecosystem and creating innovative solutions to solve relevant challenges in communities. 

Facebook encourages all businesses to shift online and sell goods and services through an online platform to allow inclusivity and accessibility. 

African startups selected

The startups that were chosen to join the Facebook Accelerator: Commerce Programme were assessed by an international panel of Facebook and product experts. 

The selected startups displayed potential in driving customer value, creating a diverse and focused leadership team, making use of groundbreaking technology and research, and providing evidence of business growth.

The virtual Facebook Programme allows the selected startups, from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, with access to Facebook mentors, comprehensive training, founders and mentors consisting of product experts, and Facebook’s products and technologies to drive customer value and business growth.

The two South African startups that were selected were, BoxCommerce and ShoppingFeeder

BoxCommerce is a platform for small and medium-sized businesses to create eCommerce websites. The platform combines site development, payment, shipping, and shop management for businesses to seamlessly manage their sites. 

ShoppingFeeder is a leading feed management platform that increases business sales by creating a specific social media feed that represents the business and attracts customers. ShoppingFeeder is a multi-channel marketing platform for online stores.

The Egyptian three startups selected were, Botme, Convertedin, and WideBot. 

Botme is a commerce chatbot building platform. Chatbots are a computer program that simulates a conversation with human users. Botme aims to assist small and medium-sized businesses to develop chatbots and publish them on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. 

Convertedin is an ad automation platform for retailers and eCommerce businesses. The objective of Convertedin is to provide retailers with intelligent algorithms to reach their marketing potential. 

WideBot focuses on encouraging businesses to build AI-enabled chatbots that communicate in formal and informal Middle Eastern languages. The AI models Widebot uses are pre-trained in industry knowledge and continuously learn from historical data.

Two startups that were selected from Kenya were Digiduka and OkHi.

Digiduka assists informal retailers, known as kiosks, in Africa by providing access to digital inventory and have the capability to process digital payments easily and cost-effectively. 

OkHi is working to develop the next generation address system. The system aims to amplify commerce via enhanced logistics to finance better personal identification.

FeedGeni is the only Ghana startup selected for the Facebook programme. It is a product feed generator that assists online merchants to increase product visibility and sales by uploading their products list on shopping engines.