Denis Opudo
Pangea is an accelerator startup from Norway which launched its services to Kenya in January 2018. During that period the startup highlighted its plans to connect startups with investors. Pangea took its time to examine the African whole tech ecosystem. It started with startups. The program came to an end in February 2017 and it had 407 applicants. Most of the applicants came from agri-business firms. The sector represented 27% of the total applicants. This is an indication of growth in the agricultural sector in the region. Fintech startups were second representing 15% of the total applicants. Other applicants came from clean tech, health, education and renewed energy sector.
Kenya and Nigeria represented the largest number of applicants. Kenya had 220 while Nigeria had 107. Pangea has partnered with ecosystem experts to go through the applications. This will help it in assessing scalability and sustainability. Currently, it is viewed that almost 13.5% of applicants are in a position to grow. Furthermore, the startup is advocating for linking startups with overseas investors. This will ensure that there is a smart mode of investment. More than 25.8% of the businesses are in a position to grow both locally and globally.
Pangea is putting up a three-month program that will have the best 40 startups from the applicants. This startup will then access funding and various training. Both international and national investors and experts will take charge of the training. The last group to make it to the top three will take home an initial funding worth $50,000. There are 17 main challenges that must be solved so as to have a sustainable future. The move is very important to the society. Furthermore, it offers a big opportunity for businesses in the current generation. This is given the fact that UN has increased its target amounts to trillions of dollars.
Innovators and entrepreneurs are highly searching for structured and comprehensive platforms. This will help them start and improve their enterprises. Through the partnership with various partners, Pangea is able to offer better skills, growth and funding programs. The startup will launch a crowd-funding investment platform before the end of 2018. This will provide more ways for startups to generate more funding.
