Participants of the ADMF Creative Media and Technology Accelerator Bootcamp, with Bitange Ndemo, who presided over the graduation on Friday.
While technology companies are often touted as attractive for investment, the creative economy receives little in the way of attention or resources, despite its potential.
It is with this in mind that the Africa Digital Media Foundation’s Creative Media and Technology Accelerator held the first in a series of quarterly accelerator bootcamps for entrepreneurs in the creative media and tech industries.
The week-long programme focused on business principles, with the entrepreneurs pitching their ideas six angel investors brought in by ADMF in a closed door session. The six investors will not only provide funding, but support and mentorship to the companies as well.
“The accelerator will equip these entrepreneurs with insights and tools to help them scale their companies”, notes Laila Macharia, Director of the Africa Digital Media Institute, under which ADMF operates.
“African entrepreneurs are so talented and so smart”, Rachel Gichinga, Program Lead at the Africa Digital Media Foundation added at the closure of the workshop. “They just need a bit of technical and financial support to help them move from the idea phase to something that is scalable and sustainable.”
The first module of the Creative Scale-ups Accelerator comprised of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that either have, or are predicted to shortly attain and maintain a growth rate of 20% year-on-year. They were selected or their ability to potentially drive job creation and innovation in their market segment.
The participants included winners of the Design by Disruption 2015 challenge, grantees from the Centum Foundation and HEVA Fund, and others selected by ADMF. They include:
- My Msanii, an artist booking website led by musician Juliani
- Ziko Afrika, a contemporary jewelry and design line
- Bunifu Technologies, a software development firm, makers of the Bunifu Sniper antivirus
- The Tsunami Studios, an animation and graphic design studio
- MyRide Kenya, a matatu rating app
- Elimu Digital Media, a TV channel delivering educational content to secondary school students
- Bizpesa, a business and industry information aggregation service for potential investors
The participants were chosen because they have advanced past the startup phase and are looking to scale up with help from the Africa Digital Media Foundation’s accelerator.
The week-long accelerator programme examined the participants’ business model, money management and metrics, with one day dedicated to Acumen, a Financial Management simulation.
Photo via the Africa Digital Media Institute
