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Startupbootcamp receives over 1k applications for Cape Town accelerator

Startupbootcamp Africa has received over 1,000 applications for its Cape Town-based accelerator programme after spending three months on a cross-world journey to source the best startups.
Startupbootcamp receives over 1k applications for Cape Town accelerator

The first-ever Startupbootcamp accelerator in Africa took place last year, and ended with startups signing 32 corporate agreements, including pilots and proof of concepts.

Applications for the second edition opened in February, with the Startupbootcamp team embarking on a tour scouting top-tier tech startups to join the three-month accelerator. In the end it hosted 19 FastTrack events in 15 countries across the globe.

By the end of the process, Startupbootcamp Africa had received 1,004 applications from five continents, 88% of which came from Africa. In all, 38% of the African applications came from West Africa, 32% from Southern Africa, 25% from East Africa, and 6% from North Africa.

Startups from various industries applied, including e-commerce, fintech, software development, ed-tech, agri-tech and entertainment, while 12% of the applicants were females.

“We’ve received an overwhelming number of applications this year into our programme, nearly double the 512 applications we received last year,” said Zachariah George, co-founder and chief investment officer of Startupbootcamp Africa.

“We saw a big increase in the quality of applications and also in the diversity of technological problems being solved, and companies with significantly more traction than what we saw last year.”

The Startupbootcamp Africa team are currently reviewing each of the 1,004 startup applicants in order to select 20 to join their final selection days next month in Cape Town. At the end of the two-day selection process, the top 10 startups that have been accepted into the final accelerator will be announced.

This article was originally published on Disrupt Africa.

Source: Disrupt Africa

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About Tom Jackson

Co-founder @DisruptAfrica. Tech and business journalist in Africa. Passionate about the vibrant tech startups scene in Africa, Tom can usually be found sniffing out the continent's most exciting new companies and entrepreneurs, funding rounds and any other developments within the growing ecosystem.
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