GESA Blog

She Wins Africa is a program designed to assist women entrepreneurs across sub–Saharan Africa by offering training, mentorship and networking opportunities that will help their startups succeed. African women have the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the world at an estimated 24% and are more likely to start businesses than their counterparts in other regions in the world. However, several factors persistently hinder the potential of female founders and entrepreneurs in Africa. These include lack of access to startup capital, lack of access to start-up support ecosystems and networks that deliver capacity building support and lack of knowledge and expertise to implement gender-lens investing strategies among venture capital firms and funds. She Wins Africa aims to address these challenges and improve opportunities for women-led startups to access financing. The program will: Provide investment readiness training and business skills capacity building, which will help women-le...

  AgroHack Challenge is seeking innovative ideas across the agriculture industry's value chain. These ideas will be accelerated to create new opportunities for many young Nigerians. The key objective of the AgroHack Challenge is to harness innovative solutions that will enhance rapid growth in the agriculture food sector and increase output and profitability for farmers, create new jobs and increase food security in Nigeria.   Benefits · Participants also stand a chance to win up to one million naira · Accelerator programme · 5 days Enterprise boot camp · Intense mentorship from a pool of international mentors · Business support services · Access to investors · Access potential clients · New market opportunities Eligibility · Must be between 18 - 35 age · Must have a team (minimum of 2 ) · Have an innovative or scalable business idea or model in the agricultural sector (ranging anywhere from farm to fork) · ...

  We are looking for the next generation of African Tech Startups disrupting major industry sectors! The program is open to startups in various sectors, including but not limited to FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, Climate-tech, eCommerce, Digital Health, GreenTech, Mobility, digitizing the informal economy and empowering artisans. We scout, skill, and scale early-stage startups through intensive coaching and opportunities for pilots and Proof of Concept projects that subsequently open the doors for longer-term commercial agreements. This cohort’s incredible partners include: Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) A leading impact investor that supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. Government of Senegal, through DER/FJ A youth and women empowerment structure set up by the President of the Republic of Senegal. With the help of DER/FJ startups will gain public-sector knowledge ...

 Startup Wise Guys accelerator is an intense, high energy, no BS, straightforward approach to coaching by practitioners, not consultants. It is a 5-month program taking place in a hybrid mode – online and on site when possible. The program is: Mentor-driven – During the program, startups meet ~100 mentors who lead seminars, workshops, 1-1 sessions, Q&A’s & AMA’s (ask-me-anything). Sales and fundraising focused – Our goal is to teach startups the best sales and fundraising approaches in the right order that will have the biggest impact for their startup. By the end of the program they will be in a position to raise the next round through proven traction. Startup mindset oriented – Running a startup is a marathon, not a sprint; therefore we focus on helping startups to avoid the typical pitfalls, and run an effective business + SWG Alumni network with real survival & growth hacks at the fingertips Apply Here