Startup Incubation; the inception of AFRIK Fashion and 2J Cycle.
As part of the Pathways to Sustainable Employment (PaSE) programme — GrassRoots Hub in collaboration with the Ghana Tech Lab (GTL) initiated a free ten-week incubation support program for two technology-inspired startups in Sunyani, the Bono region of Ghana.
The startups were the winners of the Sunyani Startup Summit organized by GrassRoots Hub and its partner to promote the growth of innovative startup ideas in the Bono region to meet the increasing community needs and curb the youth employment challenge in the region. In this regard, before the Pitch Summit, these start-ups were beneficiaries of a free six-week Web Development Training Program designed for thirty unemployed young people in the Bono region which forms part of the Pathways to Sustainable Employment (PaSE) programme.
Afrik Fashion is one of the two startups that benefited from the ten-weeks free incubation program. The startup innovation is designed to promote and project the fashion industry in Sunyani on a national and continental level by providing fashion designers with an online platform where they can leverage digital marketing to access wide audience, potential partners, investors and customers.
The second startup — 2J Cycle — also focuses on the waste management industry with the sole mandate to improve sanitation while promoting proper waste management in the Bono region through digital means. 2J Cycle is a startup to assist waste management companies in Sunyani with an online platform where their clients and patrons can request for their service on demand as well as educate users on proper sanitation and waste management disciplines.
During the ten-week period, the startups were exposed to resources and materials, they had a variety of engagements as well as series of activities that supported them in building viable and sustainable products and services for their respective sectors in the job market. The two startups at the end of the ten-week program have utilized the assistance received to build functional web-apps to which they have already commenced utilising to onboard their first-set of clients.
These startups will continue their journey with progressive business support from GrassRoots Hub after one startup is adjudged the foremost startup innovation after a pre-selection event — thus, a local pitch summit to select the winner of the incubation program. After the local pitch summit, the premier startup will compete in a national start-up pitch competition dubbed “Ghana Startup Summit” with other startups across eight hubs in eight regions respectively.
This national competition promises to give these startups access to a wider community of investors and partners amid diverse funding opportunities from partners of the PaSE programme. To this end, GrassRoots Hub and Ghana Tech Lab are poised to enable them to accelerate their ideas to find substance and sustained growth with the mandate to create jobs and more innovations for the growth of the startup ecosystem in Ghana.
