NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

As with much of the early-stage startup sector in Africa, It is a time of reckoning for accelerators. The tech sector is now three years into a “funding winter” that has seen funding levels remain less than half from its peak in 2022. As the abrupt USAID cuts in developing economies spur ripple effects across impact-oriented investment and grant domains, the already-fragile startup ecosystem is feeling the full brunt of it, and arguably the weakest link among the continuum of ecosystem support organizations — accelerators — may be the most at-risk at this turbulent junction. The top-down and bottom-up pressures are only building on an accelerator model that for years now has been driving in neutral rather than innovating as its portfolio companies are told to strive for.