With an emphasis on open innovation and strategic collaboration between South African startups and Japanese companies, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has announced the expansion of its flagship NINJA Accelerator to South Africa.
The pan-African majority-owned company of NEC Corporation, NEC XON, extends an invitation to bright startups to explore the possibility of a commercial partnership with the JICA NINJA Accelerator in South Africa – Open Innovation Edition. The overarching goal of JICA is to investigate local startup-Japanese company collaboration models and augment local startup ecosystem development via private sector innovation.
“The hope is to increase startups’ chances to find new strategic partners, investors, or enterprise client in NEC, and also to help reveal potential exit paths in case of perfect strategic fit. All these outcomes could also be of great value to VCs if the selected startup turns out to be a portfolio company,” said Kohei Muto, CEO of Double Feather Partners, the Japan-based Africa-focused VC and consulting firm leading the project on behalf of JICA.
Interested startups can apply until July 28.
