In partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, MEST Africa selected six SMEs for the second cohort of the MEST Scale Accelerator. The businesses span a variety of sectors, including education, logistics, e-commerce, agriculture, and marketing technology. Fifty percent of the businesses in the cohort also have women in leadership roles. The participating companies are:
- Techaide — Techaide leverages technology to improve education and economic opportunities by deploying solutions for urban and rural communities.
- YomYom — YomYom is a digital logistics marketplace for informal businesses that want to connect with trusted transport providers.
- Swoove — Swoove is building the largest network of logistics providers in Africa to connect small businesses with logistics at affordable prices, helping them reach more customers globally.
- Arkesel — Arkesel provides businesses with platforms for engagement and personalized communication with customers using SMS, email, voice messaging, USSD, and cloud computing.
- OceansMall — OceansMall has built an end-to-end supply chain platform to reduce food loss and waste in the fishing industry.
- Digistore Africa — Digistore Africa empowers business owners in Africa by removing the complexities of starting, managing and growing their businesses.
Over the next six months, through bespoke engagement and sector-specific masterclasses led by experts from MEST Africa, the Mastercard Foundation, Absa Bank Ghana, and Deloitte Ghana, the companies will work to address critical challenges that make it difficult for them to scale up sustainably. Other focus areas will include investment readiness, sustainability, partnerships, finance, and operations.
Source: MEST Africa
