This week, there has been high profile discussion led by Ory Okolloh (@kenyanpundit) about the local Africans not able to secure the Funding for their tech business as compared to non-locals. Many of the Funds ,Venture Capitals and Angel Investors are owned by people from outside Africa and they tend to fund the familiar faces to them. I will give my thoughts on this later, but for now let us talk about Growth Hub Africa.
The GrowthHub in partnership with GrowthAfrica and Village Capital, are looking for Kenyan top innovators/start-ups to fund. They have two Funding Programmes which developers who need capital can take advantage of:
Idea to Innovation
Idea to Innovation is a programme that they have tailored for the Entrepreneurs who have validated ideas and want to move them to the next level. 10-12 start–ups with mature ideas will be selected to work with the facilitators, mentors, entrepreneurs in residence for 6-8 weeks .
After that initial Training, 4-6 start –ups will be selected and provided enough resources to execute their pilot/test over an additional period of 10 weeks. The end of the programme will be marked by presentation to a panel of business angels and each team will receive 5, 000 USD.
Applications due by July 15 and there will be an Information Sessions on July 1 and July 11. Programme will Start on August 1. Apply Now —For Idea to Innovation and get more info Here
Innovation to Impact
The second Programme is Innovation to Impact. The programme is for the start-ups who want to scale up and build a sustainable business. 12-15 start-ups will participate in the programme, which relies heavily on peer-to-peer support as well as mentor interaction during the process of launching the product/service into the market.
According to Patricia Jumi of GrowthHub, the structure of the programme will provide the entrepreneurs with the tools they need to successfully build and test their products and services into the market. And that includes Access to seed funding (up to $100,000), one on one mentorship, collaborative working space in the heart of Nairobi’s business district, series of workshops and access to investors through pitch showcases
At the end of the programme, two start-ups will be selected and they will receive a total investment of $75,000 from both GrowthAfrica and Village Capital.
If you Start-ups or ideas fall under the following sectors: energy / environmental sustainability, mobile and IT, agro-processing, financial services and essential services (health, education, water & sanitation). Apply at Innovation to Impact. Check This for More Info