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Opportunities for #SolutionSeekers

By strive masiyiwa

Opportunities for #SolutionSeekers:

__IFC launches a new tech VC fund; Africa Business Heroes on stage!

I’m very pleased to share with all of you that a few days ago, the International Finance Corporation [IFC] launched a US$225m Venture Capital [VC] fund to invest in early stage tech startups in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Pakistan.

Last year, all these regions together received less than 2% of $643bn of global venture capital funding. I know many of you entrepreneurs on the platform have shared for years how tough it is to find the #VentureCapital you need to grow and scale your businesses.

The IFC’s new VC funding platform is looking to invest in innovative businesses focused on climate-tech, agritech, edutech, healthtech, food security, e-commerce, e-mobility, and other disruptive tech sectors as well.  As some of you know, IFC has been great partners with us, too, at our Cassava Technologies.

If you’re an entrepreneur with an early stage startup, an innovative business model, and a tech-based #Solution [homegrown in your own country, and maybe the disruptive #Innovation the rest of the world is also looking for] you can find out more about this new fund here: https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/Topics_Ext_Content/IFC_External_Corporate_Site/Venture+Capital

As you'll see when you do your own research, the IFC is looking not just to increase investment in innovative startups in emerging markets, but to support the whole tech ecosystem.

__As I said to the IFC recently, and to many of you over the years, this is really an idea whose time has come. Please check it out and share the good news!

***

Speaking of opportunities for Africa’s #SolutionSeekers: I wanted to remind you that the Africa's Business Heroes [ABH] Finale top 10 competition will be this weekend, on Saturday 19 November in Johannesburg at 10:15 am Central Africa Time.

This is ABH's 4th year where 10 African entrepreneurs [five men and five women] will compete to win a share of US$1,5m in grant prize money.  [Note: this ABH competition run by the Alibaba Foundation will award  "grant" prize money which is entirely different from IFC's "venture capital" investment funding I told you about. I  hope you know the difference by now between VC and grants].

To watch the ABH Finale show Live online starting tomorrow [Saturday] morning, register here: https://www.facebook.com/Africabusinessheroes/

If you have time to watch, try to see what you can learn from both the 3-minute pitches, and also how the entrepreneurs answer 10 minutes of questions from the judges. I suggest you take notes. [You can also vote online this year to choose your winner].

Listen for the 3Ps, as well as the vision of the founder, the #Scalability of the business, and the #Size of the addressable #Market. What is the #Problem they are solving? What do you think of the #Business model? 

These 10 Afripreneur #SolutionSeekers are just a small sample of our continent's business visionaries fighting IN the conditions... and each will walk away tomorrow with a portion of the grant prize money! I wish all of them well.

Please keep taking the time to learn from each other, and tune in if you can. Maybe next year it will be us cheering YOU on!

"Create the highest grandest possible vision of your life, because you become what you believe". Oprah Winfrey

#IFCVCplatform

#DisruptiveTech

#DigitalEconomy

#ABH2022

For those of you interested, here's a link to some of my comments on this new IFC VC fund: https://www.facebook.com/IFCwbg/videos/485722880228122/?extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&_rdc=2&_rdr

Image caption: What is in your hands? [Some of you have heard me ask this questions countless times!]  The digital economy is here. It is our time.

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