MPE&VCA member venture capital firm, EME Myanmar, in partnership with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and Village Capital, has announced the launch of the gender-smart SanThit Accelerator for 2022, welcoming Myanmar startups to be awarded up to USD 30,000 each in grant funding.
For this year, the Myanmar-focused accelerator is taking up to 20 companies to be nurtured and encouraged to grow as high-impact, gender-inclusive startups.
Startups focused on Myanmar working in any sector are eligible to apply. Matt Viner, EME Investment Manager and co-designer of SanThit said, “SanThit is unique in how it addresses much of what we felt was missing from accelerators, it’s a great opportunity for those founders that need real hands-on support and funding to reach investment-readiness or pivot toward sustainable models. EME hopes it, and others, will have the opportunity to invest in companies going through SanThit”.
Financing the startups will come under three rounds of support by successively narrowing down the selection of startups and awarding additional grant funding at each phase. The last support phase will see up to two companies chosen to receive further funding.
In addition to receiving the financial support, the successful applicants will be entitled to receive up to nine months of hands-on post-investment support which includes engaging with the global startup curriculum of Village Capital and market-leading support from EME Myanmar.
SanThit Accelerator’s launch in 2022 follows the first accelerator programme initiated in 2021, which saw 20 startups joining the cohort through different support phases. Companies within the program succeeded in growing paid users, pivoting to new business, and raising equity investment from regional angels.
Last year’s cohort of SanThit Accelerator saw four companies, Z-Waka, a healthTech startup, YouMe, a relationship matching platform, Dinger, a payment processor, and English language learning platform, Saya, reaching the final stages of the accelerator programme.