AFRICANigeria’s Klasha and South Africa’s Akiba Digital, both of which are fintech startups, have been accepted into Expert DOJO International Accelerator program, a Southern California-based accelerator.

The accelerator program invests US$100,000 into each of its startups and helps them scale up and gain traction for their businesses.

Klasha and Akiba Digital will join Expert Dojo’s Spring 2021 cohort for their International Accelerator program.

Klasha is an online universal checkout that allows international retailers to accept online payments in African currencies and is expected to reach US$4.5 million in MRR by the end of 2021.

Akiba Digital is a financial data aggregation company that houses an agnostic data consolidation and enrichment engine that clusters, visualizes and predicts consumer behaviour. Akiba Digital established partnerships with IBM and TransUnion as well as a commercial contract with BNP Paribas.

“We are excited to welcome this year’s first cohort to our 3-month extensive accelerator program,” said Brian Mac Mahon, Founder and CEO of Expert DOJO.

“We believe that all of our founders demonstrate this ability to scale and that our program will help them get there quicker.”

Brian Mac Mahon – Founder and CEO, Expert DOJO

“The foundation of every great unicorn is explosive growth. We believe that all of our founders demonstrate this ability to scale and that our program will help them get there quicker.”

The two startups will join 11 other startups from across the globe in the international early-stage startup accelerator which has invested in over 100 startups with 41% of them female-founded/led companies.

The 11 startups include Czar-Power, based in Boston, MA; Adgero, based in Hampshire, U.K; DataCalculus, based in Tallinn, Estonia; Formaloo, based in Tallinn, Estonia; imMail, based in Alberta, Canada; Xicama, based in Venice, CA; Tunedly, based in St Louis, Missouri; SolidBlock, based in Jerusalem, Israel; ContentMap, based in Göteborg, Sweden; Instoried, based in Bangalore, India and Moodbit, based in New York, NY.

Expert DOJO’s network consists of over 100 startups, more than 300 industry-leading corporate partners, growth specialists as well as hundreds of venture capital firms and investors.

Over the next three months, the startups will have the opportunity to virtually meet with this ecosystem in private dealflow sessions, training and mentorship sessions along with investment focus weeks and weekly demo days.

In addition, the accelerator program includes a sales and marketing focus month to increase their chance to acquire more customers and secure investment.

“After the success of these incredible startups in our current cohort, we plan to invest in 80 more globally diverse founders this year,” said Brian.