The Spark Accelerator Program has announced the 10 startups selected for its second cohort, chosen from a highly competitive pool of over 200 applicants.
The selected startups – Mediakits.Io, WePlay Arcade, GoPay, FlexPay, QuePay, Leta.AI, Oye, DigiTax, Incourage Insurance Agency Limited and StockApp will participate in an intensive three-month program designed to accelerate their growth and set them up for long-term success.
The program combines training, mentorship, funding, and go-to-market support across two tracks:
- iHUB-led Track: A structured curriculum including expert-led workshops, advisory sessions, and mentorship.
- Corporate Engagement Track: Access to Safaricom and M-PESA Africa’s commercial and technical teams, along with distribution networks to fast-track scale and integration.
The selected startups operate in strategic sectors including Embedded Finance, Creative Economy, Future Fintech, and SME Productivity Tools: areas aligned with Safaricom’s broader innovation and impact agenda.
“As part of our commitment to our purpose of transforming lives, we aim to Nurture, Grow and Scale commercially viable tech start-ups that drive positive societal impact. We have broadened our scope of support to early-stage startups that fit the criteria, to include technology and product development support, access to market and access to capital,” said Dr Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom.
The three-month acceleration will culminate in a high-impact Product and Investment Demo Day in February 2026, where the startups will showcase their solutions to leading venture capital funds, potential partners, and distribution networks.
The Spark Accelerator is a corporate accelerator powered by a strategic partnership between Safaricom, M-PESA Africa, and Sumitomo Corporation, implemented by iHUB, with support from Vodacom, PwC, and AWS.
“Africa’s innovation and creative ecosystems need financing models that go beyond the current traditional financing sources .Corporate accelerators play a vital role by bringing the resources, infrastructure, and market access of established companies into direct partnership with startups. This approach strengthens the capacity of ventures to scale and creates new pathways for sustainable growth and resilience across the continent. The commitment of Safaricom, M-PESA Africa, Sumitomo, AWS, and PwC makes this vision possible, and we are proud to work together to shape Africa’s innovation and creative future.” Ojoma Ochai, Managing Director iHUB and Co-creation HUB.
The first cohort Churpy, Chpter, BlackRhino VR, Twiva, Chumz, Health X Africa, Vuna Pay, Nobuk, Faidi HR demonstrated the program’s unique ability to equip startups with access to markets, technology integration, mentorship, and investor networks, positioning them for scale and sustainability. Chpter expanded its AI-powered platform into Uganda and Tanzania, helping SMEs extend their reach beyond borders. Twiva secured new partnerships with leading brands, reinforcing its role as a leading influence-driven marketplace. HealthX Africa grew its subscriber base by 40% in just six months, reflecting the rising demand for hybrid healthcare solutions, while VunaPay partnered with additional cooperatives to ensure faster, more transparent payments to thousands of smallholder farmers.
These success stories underscore the tangible outcomes of the Spark Accelerator and its growing role as a launchpad for African innovation with global relevance.
Startups in the second cohort will benefit not only from Safaricom’s technology assets — including Daraja and M-PESA Africa Open APIs — but also from hands-on product development and integration support that can fast-track their ability to build, test, and scale impactful solutions across markets.
Through iHUB’s Pan-African innovation network, startups gain access to a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, experts, and ecosystem enablers, creating opportunities for cross-border collaboration, market entry, and knowledge exchange. Additionally, support from partners such as AWS — through AWS Activate Credits — equips the startups with critical infrastructure and cloud resources to scale efficiently and sustainably. This combination of corporate tools, community support, and technical resources is designed to accelerate each startup’s path to scale and long-term resilience.
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About Safaricom
Safaricom is the leading telecommunication company in East Africa. Our purpose is to transform lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities and people to information. We keep over 50 million customers connected and play a critical role in the society, supporting over 1.1 million jobs both directly and indirectly while our total economic value was estimated at KES 562 billion ($ 4.3 billion) for the 12 months through March 2024.
Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of close to KES 388 billion as at March 2025, Safaricom provides connectivity through a wide range of technology, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G in aggregate covering over 99% of Kenya’s population.
We run the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech, M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system. By empowering over 34 million customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone, M-PESA has driven financial inclusion in Kenya to 83.7% in 2021 of the adult population from a low of 26.7% in 2006 and generated over KES 161 billion in revenue as at FY25.
Our subsidiary, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, has deployed world class network and services to contribute to Ethiopia’s digital transformation.
Safaricom is an equal opportunity employer, actively recruiting staff from different backgrounds reflecting the communities that we serve. We are committed to equal gender representation at all levels. Our target is to achieve 50:50 senior management gender parity by 2025.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we continue to work towards improving energy and resource efficiency in our network and facilities to reduce carbon emissions and our fuel consumption. We remain committed to becoming a Net Zero carbon-emitting company by 2050.
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About iHUB
iHUB Nairobi is a globally recognised innovation enabler and Africa’s first tech hub, launched in March 2010 to nurture Kenya’s growing community of technologists, entrepreneurs, and creators. Born from a movement that valued open collaboration and grassroots problem-solving, iHUB built an environment of trust and experimentation that helped leapfrog the region’s technology entrepreneurship—supporting the growth of 1,000+ startups and shaping Kenya’s startup ecosystem.
Through milestones like m:Lab (entrepreneurship and mobile innovation), iHUB Research (technology insights and ecosystem knowledge), the UX Lab (user-centred design and product testing), and running accelerator and incubator programmes in the region, iHUB has professionalised the local innovation landscape, connected talent to opportunity, and partnered with governments, corporates, and development actors to co-design high-impact intervention programmes.
Today, as part of the Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) collective, iHUB benefits from a pan-African platform with hubs in Nigeria, Rwanda, Namibia, and Togo—making the group the continent’s largest creative and innovation ecosystem enabler. This network expands iHUB’s capacity to accelerate technology adoption, mobilise social capital, and scale solutions that drive socioeconomic impact across diverse sectors.
From its origins as Nairobi’s community hub to its current role within a continental powerhouse, iHUB remains dedicated to enabling innovators to build impactful, sustainable companies and to advancing Africa’s digital prosperity.For more information on iHUB, please visit www.ihub.co.ke
