The mobile phone company, Vodacom in partnership with ideaLab officially launched this Thursday the program "Vodacom Puxap", an initiative that aims to develop innovative businesses of young people and support their insertion and or growth in the market.

The program is aligned with the mobile operator's and IdeiaLab's purpose of promoting innovation centered on technological solutions from young people, with a focus on promoting digital entrepreneurship.

During the official launch ceremony, the twelve start-ups selected for the program were announced. The program will run in two phases, with seven months for the acceleration of the businesses through entrepreneurship training workshops with experts in the relevant areas, and eleven months after the acceleration, where the progress of the start-ups will be followed up, monitored, and evaluated, and events will be held to connect them with potential partners.

"With this project we believe we can improve the entrepreneurial initiatives of young people, providing access to a set of skills and opportunities, so they can grow their businesses. The ultimate goal, is not only to develop start-ups, but to drive them to create a positive impact on the communities where they are integrated," said Mara Sindaco, executive manager of Vodacom's Digital Products and Services Area.

Sara Faquir, co-founder of ideaLab, says that it is also the objective of this partnership to create opportunities for these initiatives to flourish, "connecting the pieces here so that there is this web of strong support to ensure that there is future sustainability of these initiatives," she said.