Six Kenyan start-ups among finalists for Google-backed Future is Female mentorship program

Six female-founded Kenyan start-ups are among 20 finalists selected for the Future is Female Mentorship Program.

The Future is Female Mentorship Program is a communications mentorship program by the American communications firm C. Moore Media, which was acquired by Allison+Partners.

The program, now in its fourth edition, was launched on Africa Day in 2020 and is dedicated exclusively to African female tech founders.

This year’s program is supported by the Google for Start-ups Accelerator: Women Founders Africa Program, Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund and F6S.

The six Kenyan ventures picked from the 490 applications are e-Waka Mobility, an electric bike provider, Mosmos Africa, a save-now-buy-later (SNBL) platform, Paydel, a platform that integrates logistics services on demand and payments, and Hela Money, a trading platform bridging traditional and digital finance.

Others are The Laundry Lady, an on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service and Gwiji, which empowers low-income Kenyan women with training and flexible employment.

Nine start-ups are from Nigeria while Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zambia produced one venture each.

Selected companies will be provided with insights into the fundamentals of PR and communications for early-stage tech start-ups, as well as techniques of how to create a communications plan, storytelling best practices, strategic business communications with multiple stakeholders, and positioning their start-ups for investment opportunities.

Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, an investor in some of Africa’s top tech start-ups including Nigerian fintech Flutterwave and the job placement platform Andela, will be hosting a masterclass on VC funding for the selected mentees of the program.

The program runs from August through December.