Welcome to This Week in StartupGhana newsletter. Blitz through what happened in Ghana’s innovation landscape over the last week. The big stories include:
- Kola Market bags $200,000 from the Madica Venture Program to bolster SME growth.
- Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund planning to sponsor a GHS 100 million Youth fund.
- Sommalife scores a $10,000 grant as a finalist of the FINCA Ventures Prize Competition.
- Yaw Adu-Gyamfi elected new Chairperson of the Ghana Hubs Network.
- Farmerline selected for the Unreasonable Foods Venture Fellowship.
- Revna Biosciences becomes West Africa’s first ISO-certified clinical diagnostics and biobank healthtech.
- National Communications Authority approves Starlink’s satellite broadband application.
Funding
- The full stack B2B ecommerce platform Kola Market raised $200k from the Madica Venture Program. In addition to the cash the startup will have access to 18 month venture support that includes mentorship, executive coaching, and access to the global investor network. Kola Market is different in its approach as it does not only digitize the sales process for SMEs but also helps them sell their inventory and finance them.
- The Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund is planning to sponsor a GHS 100 million youth fund which will back innovative youth-led startups. This is critical since Ghanaian founders are largely underfunded and this can bridge the access funding gap.
- Sommalife scores a $10,000 grant as a finalist of the FINCA Ventures Prize Competition. Sommalife is important to the shea butter ecosystem since it is digitising the old age industry. Using its proprietary software, TreeSyt, the company digitises the operations of smallholder farmers, empowers them to be climate-resilient through its conservation activities and connects them to international markets.
Talent
- The Ghana Hubs Network has elected Yaw Adu-Gyamfi as its new Chairperson, taking over from Josiah Kwesi Eyison, the founder of the iSpace Foundation. As Chairperson, he will provide strategic direction for innovation, tech, and business hubs across the country in collaboration with the other board members.
Accelerator
- Farmerline, the agtech startup, has been selected for the inaugural cohort of the Unreasonable Food programme. As part of the programme the founders will join the Unreasonable Fellowship, gaining access to its global network of advisors and investors. Additionally, it will get access to Mars Snacking as a potential customer as the company seeks to integrate the solutions to achieve its sustainable goals.
Regulation
- Revna Biosciences, the Accra-based biotechnology startup, has secured dual International Organization for Standardization accreditations (ISO 15189:2022 for clinical diagnostics and ISO 20387:2018 for biobanking) for its facility.
- The National Communications Authority has approved the application of Space X Starlink GH Ltd, operators of Starlink Satellite Broadband, to offer Satellite Broadband Services in Ghana. The administrative processes towards the issuance of the licence is however ongoing and expected to be completed soon.
