Startup Réseau has launched applications for the Wazo Challenge East Africa. The challenge provides mentorship, technology credits, and funding to selected startups.
In January, startup Réseau, based in India, launched an office in East Africa under the Hindsight Ventures brand. Since its inception in February with the Wazo Challenge Tanzania, Startup Réseau has completed three venture bootcamps in the region, building a portfolio of 44 tech startups.
The accelerator is open to startups that are leveraging technology and building innovative and scalable solutions. This includes services across finance, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and education. The program is aimed at 18 to 30 year-old entrepreneurs from 19 countries across the UN-designated Eastern Africa region.
“Our broader thesis is that Africa has African problems to be solved by African talent, by leveraging technology and that’s what we are here to enable through our programs. Having started out with Tanzania as our beach-head, our vision has always been to be a pan-Africa operator. We aim to build Wazo Challenge as a flagship annual program that operates a country version and a regional version in Eastern Africa. we will have an annual East African version that will open up the program to tech entrepreneurs from the extended Eastern Africa region,” said Ajay Ramasubramaniam, founder and CEO of Startup Réseau.
Upon application, 12 startups will be selected to participate in a month-long program with Startup Réseau’s global network of mentors, investors, industry experts, and successful entrepreneurs. Each startup will receive Ksh. 16,432,500 ($150,000) in technology credits from FreshWorks, AWS, IBM, Digital Ocean, and HubSpot, among others.