After 75 years since its establishment in 1947, Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) has opened its first business incubation and acceleration center (dubbed BIC) in 2022. BIC sets out with the ambition to contribute to the national endeavor of bringing about positive and lasting changes to the Ethiopian startup ecosystem and assist in the drive to create jobs, raise income and sustain the country’s growth trajectory. BIC has commenced its operation by accepting the first batch of 10 business founders under its incubation program in February 2023.
Being uniquely positioned to support the private sector development in Ethiopia, AACCSA has more than 17,000 member companies, which jointly translates to a good community of entrepreneurs and network space and a strong ecosystem for startups to learn from, to partner with, cross fertilize innovative ideas and many more. Currently, the business incubation center provides ideal co-working offices for those who are being supported by its incubation and acceleration programs. Startups under BIC’s program can also access other membership packages. The programs under the Business Incubation and Acceleration Center are usually announced online. BIC gives priority to technology-enabled businesses through an array of sectors. Startups under the business incubation center programs can use the coworking space for free of charge.
Innovation center startups in the national Yegara.org
The innovation center is interested in bringing it’s startups in the national Yegara.org platform because we believe it would help to create, monitor as well as promote the portfolio of startups under our support in organized and supportive manner. More specifically, we wanted to:
1. Register our startups under BIC on the platform with our “badge” as their supporting organization/accelerator. – This would also help to remove duplication of support by other donors/organizations and competition awards.
2. Access an online dashboard where we would be able to see portfolio development of our startups.
It is our hope that the Yegara.org team will provide us an account as “Supporting Organization” in the platform where we could be able to monitor the updates on our startups.
