VC4Africa.com and Appfrica.org are announcing a formal partnership to mobilize and support the venture capital community of Africa. The new partnership aims to build the leading community of investors and entrepreneurs dedicated to building business on the continent.
Both parties believe that entrepreneurship should be the main driver in Africa’s economic growth, in particular the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that provide much of Africa’s employment, income and hope for a better future. SMEs contribute around two thirds of national income and provide the foundation for a stable middle class in many African countries.
In line with this vision, the partnership will focus on building tools needed to mobilize the skills, knowledge and connections entrepreneurs need to develop, grow and scale their business. More importantly, the project aims to promote social entrepreneurship and will serve as a platform needed to attract investors and capital to the market. Ben White, founder of VC4Africa.com says, “There is a serious lack of information and resources in this area. South Africa as a market dominates the space. How can we serve entrepreneurs in the rest of the continent fighting to make a difference? I believe we can achieve a lot by bringing the right people and tools together.” Jonathan Gosier of Appfrica.org adds, “At Appfrica Labs we practice these ideas on a niche-level everyday, it gives me great pleasure to be able to support the entire sector on a macro-level through this partnership.“
The project will leverage Afridex.net, a business information aggregator developed by Appfrica Labs Lead Developer, Moses Mugisha. Afridex, inspired by popular websites like Crunchbase.com, LinkedIn.com and GetSatisfaction, was built in the Python framework Django and allows businesses to create profiles, monitor their brands and offers ‘portable widgets’ that allow people to write and blog about them. As part of the partnership, Appfrica.org will build out a web community of various verticals (agriculture, tech, real estate, etc.) that allows for an easy to navigate index of companies that exist across the continent. The most innovative aspect of the community, however, will allow groups of would-be-investors with similar interests to raise venture capital funds. These funds can then be invested in the businesses of the group’s choice.
By taking the general concept behind venture capital and leveraging this community of nearly 5000 expatriated Africans, as well as foreign and local investors, the new web application will allow for the constructive application of capital to the African market. Moving forward, the team seeks out partnerships with likeminded organizations and will build on its active and dedicated member base.
Background
VC4Africa.com was started in the interest to connect investors and entrepreneurs. The community has developed into a powerful network of individuals dedicated to the promotion of African business. In an effort to scale impact, VC4Africa.com seeks out ways to mobilize members and effect change. In May 2009 a technical partnership was sought with Appfrica.net.
Appfrica Labs is a tech incubator based in Kampala, Uganda. It’s a unique organization that works to incubate entrepreneurs and university recent graduates to combat brain-drain and support the local economy. Appfrica provides developers with the physical space, hardware, internet connection and mentorship needed to produce successful software entrepreneurs in East Africa.
Ideas, questions, partnership? Please contact the VC4Africa.com team Ben White at be*@vc*******.com or Jonathan Gosier at jo*@vc*******.com.
