Over the next two years, managers of top accelerators in Africa will receive training from Silicon Valley venture capital firm 500 Global and Germany’s Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in order to help them create sustainable business models that have more influence in their ecosystems.
Bootcamp for Accelerator Managers (BAM), the curriculum, will employ project-based learning and real-world scenarios influenced by 500 Global’s expertise managing over 80 accelerator programmes worldwide and GIZ’s Make-IT in Africa experience in fostering innovation on the continent. .
The initiative will include participation from fifteen accelerators from major digital centres, including Uganda, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
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Early-stage startups receive comprehensive support from accelerators, including assistance in locating capital, product-market fit, and investor access. Accelerators, being startups themselves, must contend with a number of difficulties, such as liquidity problems, in order to avoid failure.
“500 Global is thrilled to be working alongside GIZ to ensure that African accelerators have the tools they need to support startups,” said 500 Global’s Africa Lead Mareme Dieng. “500 has been investing in companies in Africa for a decade and continues to be excited about the growth of the African tech ecosystem. We believe that the next phase of this evolution will be led by home-grown accelerators, like the ones joining BAM.”
Previously known as 500 Startups, the venture capital business changed its name to 500 Global a year ago.
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According to 500 Global, the participating accelerators were chosen based on their track records, leadership positions in respective markets, experience, and length of operation. Some of their alumni also had to have raised follow-on finance.
On November 14, the first cohort will start the programme. After a five-day in-person training in Kenya, there will be a year-long virtual curriculum.
Orange Startup Studio, Westerwelle Startup Haus Kigali, Mountain Hub, Ennovate Ventures, WomHub, Africarise, Stanbic, Wennovation Hub, CTIC Dakar, Kosmos, Plug n Play, Norrsken Health Tech Africa, Venture Park, MEST Africa, and Growth Africa are just a few of the accelerators that are taking part.
“This program represents another cornerstone in Make-IT in Africa’s efforts to support African innovation on a local, pan-African and global scale,” said head of Make-IT in Africa, Matthias Rehfeld. “Together with our partner 500 Global, we use a hands-on approach to bring together African accelerators with seasoned coaches, while simultaneously building bridges between African and international networks. Beyond the scope of the program, African entrepreneurs and startups can benefit from the best practices applied by accelerators across the continent.”
Program accelerators 500 Global Program accelerators 500 Global
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh