According to Kohei MUTO, CEO of Tokyo-based international VC Double Feather Partners, in charge of leading the NINJA Accelerator in Kenya, ”Helping founders address business problems to strengthen their foothold in their domestic market, then expand, is one thing. The other is to ensure that local founders can access international capital. We notice that some local founders struggle to effectively articulate their stories or their very contextual business cases for international investors. So, helping startups get international-investor-ready is one of our focal points for this cohort”. The five will embark on an updated 12-week journey, leading to an official showcase on Demo Day scheduled for January 28, 2022. Five ventures made it past a narrow selection process in order to join the second cohort of the NINJA Accelerator in Kenya: ”As we continue to run multiple acceleration programs in Africa under Project NINJA, we are particularly excited to conduct our second edition in Kenya after getting familiar with the Kenyan ecosystem during our previous programs. The NINJA Accelerator is not just about potential connections with Japanese investors or partners, but more about providing customized support to founders to help increase the socioeconomic impacts embedded in their entrepreneurship”, said Shingo MORIHATA, Senior Director – Private Sector Development Group, Economic Development Department at JICA. Furthermore, the program has been updated to address specific gaps identified with local founders, including appeal to international investors. This 2nd cohort builds upon a robust first cohort which included notable startups such as Sokowatch, Kwara, Amitruck, Cinch Markets and Zana Africa, and will officially showcase their businesses to potential investors on Demo Day, scheduled for January 28, 2022.
