Jobtech Alliance

Connecting people to work opportunities that build livelihoods

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Who we are

The Jobtech Alliance is an ecosystem-building initiative around inclusive jobtech in Africa launched in late 2021. The Alliance is a collective of entrepreneurs, practitioners, investors, funders, and policymakers collaborating to help build the jobtech ecosystem in Africa. Using a system change model called Collective Impact, Mercy Corps and BFA Global steer the initiative as its backbone. The initiative is guided by a Steering Group of sector experts, and by requests from the community itself.

 

Our focus

We’re interested in digital platforms which connect people to jobs and opportunities.

We build knowledge in the sector through research and community-building.

We offer a range of acceleration activities to help jobtech platforms grow and create more jobs.

Our goal

We care about making jobtech:

Viable & Scalable:

Build strong platform businesses that create more jobs for young people

Inclusive:

Platforms reach more vulnerable & excluded groups, particularly women

Impactful:

Platforms enable users to do quality work that offers enhanced incomes, work security, learning, and meaningfulness

Our programs

The Catalyst Jobtech Accelerator

Using the Catalyst Fund Accelerator model, the Catalyst Jobtech Accelerator combines catalytic capital, bespoke venture-building support and connections to investors and other ecosystem partners to accelerate companies toward product-market fit and scale over the course of six months.

 

What we offer:

  • Grant capital
  • Bespoke Venture building support
  • Connections to our Circle of Investors

 

Eligibility:

We’re looking for jobtech platforms which satisfy the following criteria:

  1. Fall into one or more of the jobtech categories as outlined by our taxonomy here
  2. Early stage (<3 years, <$1m raised)
  3. Startup has innovative product and business model enabled by technology
  4. Suitable for venture-backed growth
  5. Operating in one or more of the following countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda
  6. Must have a product live in the market. Idea or pilot stage startups are NOT eligible

 

 

APPLY TO THE CATALYST JOB ACCELERATOR

The Jobtech Innovation Lab

The Jobtech Innovation Lab partners with jobtech platforms on individual sprints (things like product development, operational innovations, or market expansion) which have the potential to enhance scale, inclusivity, or impact of platforms with their users.

 

What we offer:

We co-develop individual sprints, where we agree on a ‘Sprint Support Package’ that could combine:

  • Venture-building support from leading jobtech practitioners
  • Technical assistance based on need (for example: product management, engineering, or strategy support) or specialised support (if you need, say, market research on expansion into Ethiopia)
  • Grant capital to de-risk new initiatives, generally from $10,000-30,000
  • Management support. We know that, particularly for earlier-stage startups, one of the biggest challenges is time and capacity. We can provide short-term management consultants to support with delivery for 1-12 weeks based on sprint needs.
  • Connections to the Jobtech Circle of investors, mentors from the jobtech community, and more.

 

Sprints could include:

  1. Developing new products/services
  2. Enhancing product, operations, or marketing in order to better deliver services, reach new markets, or remove barriers to access for marginalised populations (particularly young women and/or refugees).
  3. Supporting market expansion, particularly towards underserved markets.
  4. Much more – we’re entirely responsive to business needs and impact opportunity!

 

Apply to the Jobtech Innovation Lab

 

Join the jobtech community

Become a part of a community of startups, funders, supporters, policymakers and researchers collaborating to build the jobtech ecosystem in Africa.

 

Join us