Tech African Women startup accelerator launches in Ethiopia

The Tech African Women accelerator aims to support and foster the development of women-owned African tech startups.

Tech African Women (TAW) is a joint initiative by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with tech venture firm Betacube. TAW seeks to support female-led idea stage startups from Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania and Tunisia.

TAW aims to empower female founders to create strong tech startups and accelerate business ideas into successful business models while creating links between various African business sectors.

Members of the new accelerator will be given access to a team of developers and designers who will mentor the selected teams. The program will run until December and is comprised of three phases.

Three phases

First, a series of intensive three-day training bootcamps and pitching competitions will be held in Tunisia, Senegal, Ethiopia and Tanzania in partnership with local ecosystem players. The winning team from each bootcamp will win a cash prize of USD 2,000.

The second phase is a two-month online incubation program for the best two startups from each country, supporting them to reach market and investment readiness.

A final ceremony is to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the ECA Conference Center where eight finalist startups will be invited to pitch to win a final prize of USD 7,000.

Tech Africa Women: Exclusive opportunities

“TAW targets female-led and idea-stage tech startups and offers these startup teams an exclusive opportunity to acquire new entrepreneurial skills, establish partnerships with their African peers, increase regional business visibility, and access funds,” the organization said in a statement.  “It supports ideas addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by developing the capacity of female entrepreneurs who desire to understand how to play a role in the continent’s development and want to deep dive into building impact-driven startups.”

The UN also funds Timbuktoo, an initiative that aims to fund startups from across Africa.