The Zimbabwean startup ecosystem has been doing really well on the international stage. We have seen a number of our own being selected for accelerators and incubators the world over. Among the high achievers, is Tuverl a Bulawayo-based mobility startup. Earlier this year it won US$25,000 from the Havard Innovation Challenge and Tuverl has followed that up by being amongst 31 startups selected for the Smart Cities Innovation Programme (SCIP).
Building a smart and sustainable future
The SCIP is a program that seeks to bring together and nurture African startups by helping collectives scale up their businesses and ideas. Selected startups will receive mentoring, training as well as networking opportunities and matchmaking with SCIP business partners like Volkswagen, Siemens, Viktoria Ventures, and the African Business Angels Network (ABAN).
The program uses Rwanda’s pilot initiative (Green Kigali City) towards sustainable urbanisation. Projects that run under the Smart Cities Innovation Programme’s banner will be tested under realistic market forces to explore opportunities as well as gauge the robustness of their ideas and standard operations.
This year there were well over 300 applications for the SCIP and Tuverl was selected in the smart mobility category of the programme. The local startup was joined in their class by six Kenyan startups, Kiri EV, Mazi Mobility, Instadriver, BasiGo, Smatbeba, e-safiri, and Expendo. The remained were Digital Blind, STES Group Gura Universal Link and Walking Stick from Rwanda as well as Optimalogistic (Tunisia), KaCyber Security Tech (Uganda), EWarren Financial Services (Ivory Coast) and Transport for Cairo (Egypt).
All the startups will now undergo a six-month training program which will include virtual boot camps, demo days, a further shortlisting phase, mentorship and collaborations.
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