The Afribiz Foundation has launched Afribiz Accelerator which would serve as a network of lifecycle accelerators that support entrepreneurs, start-up, and SMEs across the African continent.
The accelerator will initially be opened in South Africa, Democratic Republic Congo, Nigeria, and Kenya in the third quarter of the year.
The announcement comes shortly after The Afribiz Foundation began its first online cohort for its Venture Acceleration Bootcamp last month.
“We are very excited about this program because we have waited a long while to build a robust, comprehensive model that fill in some of the critical gaps in entrepreneurial ecosystems in Africa,” says Lauri Elliott on behalf of the foundation. “There are a lot of great incubators and accelerators already but they are more or less targeted in a much defined niche, we want to take an ecosystem approach and see how we can leverage ecosystems to support ventures from idea to seed to start-up to growth.”
The programs that will be made available through Afribiz Accelerators to start include two programs – Venture Acceleration Bootcamp and Venture Cultivation Launchpad. The bootcamp targets entrepreneurs from the idea to seed stage. It consists of two components – Venture Creation Workshop and Venture Jumpstart. The Venture Cultivation Launchpad targets the seed to growth stages of ventures.
Afribiz Accelerator also has a strong inclusive component, extending its reach and services throughout each country through certified facilitators and coaches who carve out their own territory.
“Through our facilitators we will be able to empower communities in both urban and rural areas with entrepreneurial training, but also help them identify economic opportunities and help them find the right partners and resources to realize these opportunities,” says Elliott.
