Village Capital with support from IFC (a member of the World Bank Group) and Moody’s Foundation, has selected four startups to receive US$20,000 in funding at the culmination of the first Future of Work Africa accelerator program for startups that are working to address high levels of unemployment across the continent.
Twenty-three startups were selected to take part in the program and four winners helping young people across Africa find jobs, build careers, and prepare for the future of work, emerged.
The winning startups were from 4 African countries: Terawork (Nigeria), Mosabi (Sierra Leone), Irawo (Benin), and CoffeeChat (Mauritius).
Village Capital has supported over 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs since 2009 through its investment readiness program, while its VilCap Investments fund has invested in over 110 program graduates.
A spotlight on the selected startups:
Terawork
Terrawork is a one-stop marketplace for freelancers. It freelancers and professional service providers with businesses and individuals that need their services.
The platform matches customers with the most suitable freelancers for their job offers while offering customers a diversified crop of professionals that are providing freelancing services.
Terrawork’s clients have access to a rich stock of excellent talents and it gives freelancers an integrated “office-in-a-box” that enables them find and fill work orders seamlessly.
Mosabi
Mosabi is a platform that links fintech and edtech with AI-driven financial and life skills for financial products and platforms in Africa that help underserved citizens improve decisions and behaviors on their businesses and money.
Mosabi understands that engaging mobile financial education helps citizens of emerging markets improve decisions and behaviors on their businesses and money.
That is why it harnesses data insights from user profiles and journeys and matches them to best fit across a marketplace of digital financial services.
Its learning includes topics such as money management, core business skills, and financial literacy.
CoffeeChat
CoffeeChat is a coaching-as-a-service (CaaS) platform that allows companies offer one-on-one executive coaching for their managers.
The Future of Work (FoW) technology startup facilitates access to executive coaching for governments and managers that work at organizations across the continent.
CoffeeChat has worked with several companies to facilitate more than 1,000 coaching sessions through its network of 300 coaches from across 30 countries.
Irawo
Irawo is a digital community that helps young Africans make a living from their talents by providing tools, resources, and education to help them unlock their highest potential and monetize their unique skills.
Irawo is the largest platform in Africa where young people can be inspired by successful role models who are like them, keep doing what they love, learn how to make a living from their talents, and connect with each other, while having access to resources, events, and programs.
It helps content creators achieve financial security through cooperation as opposed to them competing for audience and views.
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