Tech in Africa
The Catalyst Fund Digital Commerce Accelerator has selected four Ghana digital commerce companies. The startups invited to its second cohort are Shopa, OZÉ, Swoove, and Tendo, and will receive funding and support.
The Catalyst Fund Accelerator is run by BFA Global alongside the Mastercard Foundation and Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST). Startups participating in the second cohort will tackle challenges in the retail sector facing informal SMEs in Ghana. This program aims at enabling the digitization of MSEs with solutions in digital logistics, delivery services, inventory management, digitization of merchant records, and access to affordable inventory financing.
The four companies will receive $120,000 in grant funding in addition to venture acceleration support, and connections from the Catalyst Fund’s growing global Circle of Investors and Circle of Corporate Innovators.
In comments shared during the press release, Program Director at the Catalyst Fund Inclusive Digital Commerce Accelerator said, “Companies like OZÉ, Shopa, Swoove, and Tendo are solving this problem with easy-to-use and affordable digital commerce services and are spurring the expansion of the digital commerce ecosystem in Ghana.”
Ghana’s capital Accra offers a lot of promise and opportunities in digital commerce innovation, tech integration in logistics and delivery, digitizing inventory management and purchasing, and trust-building solutions. The previous cohort participants Boost Ghana and KudiGo took part in digitizing solutions in inventory management and purchasing. This year’s cohort address additional areas:
The companies taking part are OZÉ, informal retail distribution, and supply chain Shopa, an e-commerce startup Swoove , and Tendo. Companies taking part in the cohort were approved by the Investment Advisory Committee comprising representatives from Chandaria Capital, Acuity Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, 4DX Ventures, Novastar Ventures, and Pharma.
💥 #Announcement: Welcome the 4 latest companies to join our portfolio in #Ghana as part of the Catalyst Fund Inclusive Digital Commerce Accelerator w @MastercardFdn @MESTAfrica 💥
Meet our new cohort: @swoovedelivery @oze @shopa_life @tendohq
Read more: https://t.co/CN4GEXiaDw pic.twitter.com/y9OM6D2rJH
— Catalyst Fund (@TheCatalystFund) October 28, 2021
