Village Capital, a US-based capital firm, has announced the 15 incubators, accelerators, and seed funds selected for its VilCap Communities Africa initiative.
The initiative is aimed at accelerating capital flow to early-stage startups in sub-Saharan Africa. It is supported by the Impact program funded by the UK Department for International Development.
The 15 organizations are set to participate in forums in Lagos and Nairobi before meeting in Cape Town in November 2018.
In addition to 12 other African organizations, Andela, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, and Ventures Platform are three Nigerian companies that have been selected to learn and share best practices, including Village Capital’s proprietary curriculum and peer-selected investment process.
According to the Managing Director of Village Capital, Allie Burns, entrepreneurs need to have a plan to deploy capital efficiently to generate a return on investment. Burns added that Village Capital specializes in helping entrepreneurs think like investors.
Village Capital’s Innovation Manager for Emerging Markets, Rachel Crawford also observed that the number of incubators and accelerators in Africa have grown exponentially while the number of successful startups on the continent has not grown at the same rate.
The firm is, therefore, aimed at equipping entrepreneur ecosystem leaders with the tools, resources, and connections they need to catalyze impact investment.
The cohorts have been split into two. Cohort One (Lagos) include Energy Generation (Pan African), Global Entrepreneurship Network (Sierra Leone), Growth Mosaic (Ghana), Sycamore Ventures (Democratic Republic of Congo), Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (Nigeria), Suguba (West Africa), The Innovation Village (Uganda), and Ventures Platform (Nigeria).
For cohort two (Nairobi), the participating organizations include Andela (Nigeria), Anza (Tanzania), BlueMoon (Ethiopia), Entreprenarium (Rwanda), Etrilabs (Benin), Jokkolabs (West Africa, Morocco), and Southern Africa Venture Partnership (Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe).
