African entrepreneurs with Africa-located companies grab slice of Tony Elumelu $100M Fund

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Boston’s BlackSoftware.com congratulates African startups who were the lucky ones of 3,000 selected by the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme sponsored by philanthropist Tony Elumelu.  They were awarded seed capital of $5,000 and 12-weeks of training for their ideas. Elumelu, the rich Nigerian businessman, put up $100M of capital in a foundation to guarantee the money would be there for them,

Harvard’s B School sees many Elumelu sponsored Africans, but this particular entrepreneurial cohort  is not the B school variety, instead, they hustle up from the streets. Their acceptance into his program is a big boost for them.  Many won’t make it, but many will, we hope.

BlackSoftware.com is standing by to support the app makers by providing a path to American markets.

Simultaneously, in early November, a group of African Americans entered a business plan challenge funded by NBC Universal Comcast on the West Coast and some were victors and received $10,000, says Blavity.

Boston has plenty to brag about in this arena too. It has funded an innovation district programmer targeting the “underserved” in Black Boston. Residents of Roxbury have a walk-in and get it resource where investors, classes, one-on-one business mentoring sessions and code training is available to those who want it.

 

 

 

On 1st of January 2018, at 12am, WAT, we will begin accepting applications for the 4th cycle of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. Outstanding African entrepreneurs who have start-ups or business ideas with high-growth potential are encouraged to apply.

After three cycles, the Programme – the only African-funded business development initiative of its kind – has:

  • Received 158,000 applications from African entrepreneurs in 107 countries, including every nation of Africa
  • Empowered nearly 3,000 businesses with 12-weeks of online training; world-class mentoring; access to TEF’s network of start-ups; and seed capital of $5,000*
  • Invested a total of $14,235,000, including $4,270,500 in agriculture; $1,285,000 in ICT, $1,245,000 in education and training; and $7,400,000 more in start-ups across 19 other sectors.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is open to citizens and legal residents of all African countries with businesses based in Africa, less than three years old, including new ideas.

Click here for more information

TEF at the EU-Africa Business Forum