2023 African Norrsken Impact Accelerator cohort startups

Five African startups were among the early-stage impact startups selected for Norrsken Impact Accelerator, 2023. The startups are Salad Africa, Sendstack, Chpter, Revwit and Octamile.

Every year, the impact accelerator selects 20 startups across the globe who are solving the world’s biggest challenges. Norrsken impact accelerator targets pre-seed to early-seed startups that leverage technology to create and scale innovative solutions to new and old societal and environmental challenges.

The Norrsken Impact Accelerator brings together a global collective of entrepreneurs and investors in Stockholm, Sweden. The Stockholm headquartered accelerator is not sector agnostic and accepts startups in any area of impact.

Norrsken impact accelerator is a petition by the Norrsken foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan and non-religious foundation, founded by Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of payment services unicorn Klarna. The foundation has local hubs in Stockholm, Sweden, Kigali, Rwanda and (soon) Barcelona, Spain.

Norrsken impact accelerator invests in founders who use the power of entrepreneurship to solve some of the greatest challenges facing our planet today, such as poverty, disease, food waste, climate change, pollution, health care and mental illness.

What Norrsken impact accelerator startups get

$125K Investment

Upfront pre-seed investment of $125k. There’s no fee for the program, so you keep the full $125k. This is in return for 7% of the startup using a “post-money” Simple Agreement for Future Equity (the “YC Safe”).

2. Unicorn Mentors

The selected startups will travel for a dedicated eight-week sprint at Norrsken House in Stockholm. Here, they’ll meet mentors from world-class founders who’ve faced the same entrepreneurial challenges, including unicorn founders.

3. Top Investors

The program will culminate in an iconic investor demo day, when startups pitch to hundreds of investors and potential customers. The startups will also continue to receive warm introductions to the right investors during and after the sprint.

The startups selected for the 2023 Norrsken impact accelerator included five African startups. Four of the startups were from Nigerian and the last one was from Nairobi, Kenya. They are:

Salad Africa

Salad Africa partners with employers to give their employees access to a portion of their earned salaries before payday. “Salad” here means salary on demand.

The Techstars backed startup enable Nigerian salary earners to access up to 50% of their accumulated earnings before payday, at zero interest. Salad Africa was founded in March 2022 by CEO Chikodi Ukaiwe and CTO Seunfunmi Omotunde.

Sendstack

Sendstack is an app-based platform providing B2B logistics services. The app helps businesses to manage their deliveries. The Lagos based startup helps businesses grow with ease by providing delivery services. Sendstack was founded in 2021 by Emeka Mba-Kalu and Ifeoma Nwobu.

Related post: 15 global startup accelerators accepting Nigerian startups

Chpter.

Chpter. provides small business with the tools they need to start, run and grow their businesses, both online and offline. The Nairobi based software development company creates checkout and payment tools, sales, marketing, customer management and analytics tools. Techstars backed Chpter. was founded by Mark Kiarie and Kuria Kevin in 2021.

Revwit

Revwit bridges the gap between Africa's growing young population and the global talent shortage. The startup enables digital education and a direct pathway to worldwide employment by offering courses in tech sales, customer success and revenue operations. Nigerian based Revwit was founded by Chinedu Ossai in 2023.

Octamile

An insurtech startup, Octamile provides a solution for insurers and businesses to manage their insurance needs, including claims automation, embedded insurance and customer onboarding.

The Nigerian based startup enables insurance and non-insurance businesses to simplify access to insurance and protect Africans from financial loss. Octamile was founded in 2021 by Gbenro Dara.

Closing thoughts

Some African startups that have participated in the previous editions of the Norrsken impact accelerator are Wellahealth, Sunfi, Kwara, Pesachoice, Gradely, Clafiya, and Wala Health.