Kenya’s leading mobile telecoms company, Safaricom, has launched a $1million venture fund to accelerate the development of mobile applications in Kenya.
According to Safaricom, the Spark Venture Fund will be offered to mobile ICT start-ups based in Kenya, either through equity investment in their businesses or in the form of other debt instruments. Each start-up will be eligible to receive amounts between USD 75,000 and USD 250,000.
To qualify for the fund, start-ups must have a working product or service with an active user base that demonstrate their ability to create transformative solutions
According to Joe Ogutu, director of strategy and innovation at Safaricom, “We see this as a much-needed catalyst that will help actualize our aspiration to nurture a vibrant ICT economy in Kenya. It will directly address the key startup and developers’ pain points such as the cost and speed of accessing a platform where they can test their solutions.”
The fund has been set-up for an initial two years and will be administered together with international tech fund TBL Invest.
Prospective applications will be subject to approval from a cross-functional Investment Committee made up of Safaricom management, TBL Invest staff and external industry experts.
“Despite contributing to over 60 percent of Kenya’s GDP, small businesses are under-funded and do not have access to the same level of advice as their counterparts in other countries,” said Eline Blaauboer, Managing Partner at TBL Invest.
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