Sumup and Coachhub to expand into Africa

The two start-ups are taking part in a Europe-wide accelerator program run by Chapter54.

The Chapter54 business accelerator aims to help European scale-ups expand into Africa. The participants of the first program have now been announced. The ten companies include two German companies, Coachub and Sumup.

The selected start-ups come from different sectors and often have different expansion strategies. Chapter54 was launched in January by French investor Partech.

The program is financed by Partech Shaker, the company's innovation arm. In addition, the German development bank KfW is providing support on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). With its young, tech-savvy population and rapidly growing technology ecosystem, Africa offers European scale-ups untapped development potential, the creators of Chapter54 are convinced.

However, for a European scale-up to be successful there, it needs access to local partners. Among other things, Chapter54 wants to provide them. "Gaining a foothold in Africa is not easy, there is definitely a risk," said Vincent Previ, Managing Director of Chapter54 in January. "In my opinion, it's all about having the right attitude; founders need to make it clear that they really want to enter this market."