The ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator’s second edition has handpicked twelve startups, granting them access to potential equity funding of up to US$120,000 along with a range of supportive resources.
Techstars, a global investment firm facilitating access to capital, personalized mentorship, and tailored guidance for early-stage entrepreneurs, collaborates with ARM Labs, a Lagos-based innovation initiative dedicated to empowering fintech startups. The three-month ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator is the result of this partnership.
Following the successful completion of its inaugural edition earlier this year, the selection process for the second edition identified 12 companies from a pool of over 1,000 applicants. While the first cohort primarily focused on fintech and prop-tech entities, this iteration embraces entrepreneurs leveraging technology, data, and intelligence to serve a growing demographic in Africa and globally—characterized by its expanding population, youthful composition, rising income levels, and increased digital access.
Nine of the chosen ventures originate from Nigeria. Notable among them are inventory marketplace 24Seven, beauty e-commerce platform Beauty Hut, emergency response startup Eight Medical, investtech platform GetEquity, and mobile checkout solution JumpnPass. Additionally, the selected Nigerian startups include health data service PBR Life Sciences, customer insight platform PressOne Africa, payments solution Surge Africa, and funds on-demand service Veend.
Two startups from Ghana—pension-planning platform One Plan and logistics startup Swoove—round out the cohort. The group is completed by Rana, a London-based energy company with a dedicated focus on Africa.
Oyin Solebo, managing director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, expressed enthusiasm about the diversity of talent, innovation, and resourcefulness inherent in the African tech ecosystem within the second cohort. Solebo emphasized the accelerator’s commitment to enabling these startups to achieve their full potential in light of market dynamics that necessitate a blend of financial support, technical guidance, and network access for building resilient businesses.
The program will culminate in an exclusive demo day scheduled for February 22, 2024.
