Africa Mobility Initiative is inviting applications from startups in the transport sector seeking to provide solutions that will help to mitigate mobility challenges in Africa.
Africa Mobility Initiative (AMI says the increase in an urban population in African cities has resulted in diversification and an upsurge in transport needs. Both public and private car use have drastically risen resulting in road congestion and air pollution.
The vision of AMI is to create a vast network of the continent and global transformative mobility enthusiasts, who work together to create sustainable and scalable solutions to mobility challenges in Africa.
Although the initiative has future plans to expand across the continent, the 2020 cohort will focus on Nairobi and Kampala. Therefore 8 Startups from Kenya and Uganda will be selected through a competitive process and in the end those that will be able to demonstrate practical, well researched and possibly tested solutions to the traffic menace will take the day.
Application is currently underway and is open until 31st of March 2020
and will run for six months starting from May to October and successful innovators will have a chance to:
*Participate in four start-up immersion trips in Kenya and Uganda for the 2020/cohort.
*They will also be coached and mentored by local and international mobility and enterprise experts.
*Network with mobility stakeholders, practitioners and enthusiasts in four separate sessions that will be held in Nairobi and Kampala between May and September 2020.
*Attend planned seminars that will be facilitated by subject matter experts and relevant topics like mobility; value proposition design and problem-solution fit; business modeling and product/service market fit; customer acquisition; financial modeling and investor relations.
*The Startups will pitch their solutions to a selected and curated pool of investors during the Africa transformative mobility summit in October 2020 in Nairobi Kenya.
*Receive a grànt of up to $25,000 for top startups during the mobility in October 2020.
To qualify for the program, the startups will be required to meet the following conditions:
*Addressing access to sustainable mobility in the informal transport sector and working towards the provision of a transformative solution to an urban mobility challenge.
*Operate in Kenya or Uganda
*Must have a demonstrable product or service(minimum viable product)
*Be able to present innovative and scalable solution to a well articulated challenge.
*Preferably not older than years since incorporation date(up for discussion)
*Demonstrate ability to raise revenue
*Have at least two members of the team
*Have at least one member working full time(or have a clear pathway to this goal)
*Be for profit
*Be in early stage /seed,pre_series A
The initiative has brought on board partners for instance German Corporation, Transformative Ubarn Mobility Initiative (TUMI)Un Habitat,C4Dlab and University Of Nairobi.
Their recent activities include the 2019 Summit a side event of Nairobi Innovation Week 2019.