• eBay founder’s US$2mil grant to Phandeeyar will also support social entrepreneurs
• Myanmar SIM card subscriptions grew 10-fold in two years

A US$2-million grant from the Omidyar Network to Yangon tech community Phandeeyar will help support a for-profit accelerator programme to be launched in September.

After hearing pitches from short-listed candidates in mid-August, judges will select four to eight winning teams, according to Phandeeyar Accelerator director Jes Kaliebe Pedersen.

Each team will get US$25,000 in seed money, office space, and six months of coaching by some of Phandeeyar’s 30 mentors, who include executives and investors in Myanmar and abroad.

Each team will be able to take advantage of server hosting, advertising and other services worth more than US$200,000. The services have been donated by such corporate partners as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Telenor and Ogilvy.

Applicants for the accelerator must be based in Myanmar, already have a product in the works, and be willing to commit themselves to development full-time for six months.

Pedersen said the judges particularly will be looking for applicants proposing an innovative, scalable product “perhaps something related to digital marketplaces, e-commerce or … MORE