As part of efforts to expose startups from Africa to global opportunities and connections, Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), one of Nigeria’s pioneer accelerators and Google for Startups have launched the second edition of the PitchDrive.
The Pitchdrive II is a three week, five-city Asian tech tour across Singapore, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo, that brings 10 elite African hardware and advanced technology startups together to discover and engage Asian suppliers and manufacturing partners to help grow their businesses, explore funding opportunities and share learning from the Asian technology market.
A statement from CcHUB disclosed that criteria for selection as one of the PitchDrive team include the ability to demonstrate a minimum of 12 months revenue-generating operations, business must be based in Africa, a strong management team who have worked together for at least 12 months, capable of demonstrating growth over that time period. The CEO and founders must also be available for the three-week period which begins from August 15th and runs till the 31st.
“The growing relationship between Africa and Asia presents an opportunity for African startups to leverage the advantages of a distributed innovation system that the world today offers,” Bosun Tijani, CcHUB co-founder and CEO said. “PitchDrive II is a unique opportunity to inspire international collaboration, strengthen and grow world-class Africa businesses while helping startups explore markets.”
The tour kicks off in Rwanda on August 15, where the 10 startups will benefit from a 2-day bootcamp at the Kigali-based CcHUB Design Lab, sponsored by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Rwanda. After the bootcamp, the startups will proceed to Singapore, China, South Korea and conclude the tour in Japan with a pitch event in partnership with JETRO, at the Tokyo International Conference of Africa’s Development (TICAD 2019) event.
“We are thrilled to be supporting the second round of PitchDrive,” says Connor Swenson, EMEA Partnerships Manager at Google for Starups. “African tech startups are building companies on a global scale, and we believe connecting them to Asian markets through the Google for Startups partner network will not only help them grow even further, but provide a chance for Asian startups to learn from best-in-class African entrepreneurs.”
2017, CcHUB and Google for Startups inaugurated PitchDrive, engaging 14 of Africa’s top tech start-ups representing 8 countries in Africa, on a tour of 5 technology hubs in Europe (London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zurich and Paris) to pitch to investors. Following the first edition of the tour, over $4.5 million was raised by a number of participating startups, alongside market expansion into new cities.
