Following the launch of several Rise initiatives already underway in Africa, i.e. the Tech Lab Africa programme and the Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge, applications to participate in Barclays Accelerator are now open to companies and start-ups wanting to participate in the Barclays Accelerator.
This program offers innovators and entrepreneurs an unprecedented access to thinkers at Barclays and to Techstars’ mentor-investor relationships across 14 locations that will model after successful Rise programmes in New York and London.
“The three-month intensive programme has been designed to accelerate new fintech businesses in delivering breakthrough products to market. What we’re offering companies is a seat within a best-in-class accelerator programme, which in turn affords access to data, technology and intensive mentoring from industry experts and key decision makers,” commented Ashley Veasey, CIO at Barclays Africa.
The program will culminate in a ‘Demo Day’ where an audience comprising of industry leaders, serial entrepreneurs, senior executives and corporate partners will listen to pitches and advise on what they think can be improved and invested in.
David Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Techstars has also been quoted as excited to launch their third accelerator program with Barclays as this will provide brand new opportunities to companies interested in leveraging the Cape Town Financial Technology community as well as the larger Barclays and Techstars ecosystems.
Applications are open and will remain that way until 10th January 2016 whereas the official program will begin on 28th March 2016 with the ‘Demo Days’ scheduled for June that year.
Barclays is looking to tap into Kenya’s local tech startup community to solve local challenges in the financial industry.
Also in partnership with Barclays for this program in Kenya is Moringa School, an East Africa Coding Center where local local developers were recently hosted for a hackathon and developers were challenged to develop financial technology propositions that can potentially revolutionize the bank’s interaction with customers.
The aim of the hackathon was to lay a foundation for good and innovative ideas for the youth involved to make money and also put Kenya on the global map as far as reaping benefits from FinTech is concerned.
