Entry to funding and lack of assist techniques are among the biggest challenges confronted by startup founders in sub-Saharan Africa. And whereas enterprise capital and founder assist applications inside the continent are rising, quite a bit nonetheless stays to be finished to fulfill the financing, expertise and social capital wants of the particularly marginalized teams like girls founders.
It’s these gaps that proceed to encourage the event of latest applications like Madica by US-based enterprise capital agency Flourish Ventures, which hopes to reduce the burdens of constructing startups.
Launched at present, Madica is a pan-African funding program that goals to supply funding, expertise assist, and mentorship to underrepresented founders throughout the continent. The sector-agnostic program targets expertise startups within the pre-seed stage, which is the place most concepts fail.
This system has put aside $6 million for funding in as much as 30 African startups, every receiving as much as $200,000 in alternate for fairness, availing the a lot wanted funding. The preliminary funding section will run for 3 years.
“Though funding is booming on the continent, funds are sometimes disproportionately focused at a couple of well-networked entrepreneurs and skewed in direction of the extra distinguished tech hubs… Madica is sector-agnostic and intends to double down on offering hands-on assist, in depth sources, entry to networks and extra. Because of this along with $6M of funding capital, we’ve got reserved an equal quantity for programmatic assist,” stated Manica’s head, Emmanuel Adegboye.
“We encourage founders throughout the continent to use for our program. We consider Africans have an unmatched entrepreneurial spirit, and one in every of Madica’s core targets is to make sure a stage taking part in area for each African founder,” he stated.
Madica stated it’s also eager on reaching underserved markets within the continent, exterior the well-established hubs of Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. That is a part of its push to make sure a pan-African attain by supporting native, and ladies founders.
To qualify for this system, founders have to be engaged on their thought full-time, have a minimal viable product, and may have acquired little or no institutional funding. Software and admission to this system shall be on a rolling foundation.
Madica can be partnering with AfriLabs, Pariti, Africa Early Stage Investor Summit, CELO basis, and Rising Tide to determine entrepreneurs to assist.
Taking part founders shall be matched with mentors together with Isis Nyong’o, the Asphalt & Ink companion; Ceviant Finance co-founder, Idris Saliu, and Wendy Hoffman, the Capital Authorized Counsel at The Delta.
“Madica is an funding within the African enterprise ecosystem, with the audacious purpose of making a broader systemic shift. Via Madica, we intend to develop a cadre of mentors, create world-class programming, crowd-in follow-on capital and leverage Flourish’s international presence to increase the attain of native networks. These will finally profit different individuals within the ecosystem – startups, buyers, and policymakers,” stated Ameya Upadhyay, the enterprise companion at Flourish Ventures, an early-stage fintech VC whose portfolio consists of Nigeria’s Flutterwave and Paga.
“We hope that Madica may help change the narrative round African startups – decrease the notion of threat, appeal to extra capital, encourage extra founders, and garner extra media consideration,” stated Upadhyay.
