Opportunities Surface For Promising African Startups

 Ehidiamhen Okpamen Entrepreneurs, Financing, Players, SME Heroes

VENTURES AFRICA – As a testament of the potency of solutions from African start-ups, the U.S Department of State collaborated with Microsoft, USAID and Startup Weekend to launch the Liberalizing Innovation Opportunity Nations (LIONS@FRICA) in 2012; recent news from this partnership suggests that an opportunity exists for one African Startup, the winner of ongoing innovation competitions, to embark on an all-expense paid trip to Silicon Valley in the United States.
SWELL, a global partnership and corporate venture firm and provider of this new opportunity, has announced that 7 finalists will be contending for the SWELL Innovation Award that will hold during DEMO Africa in Lagos, Nigeria on Thursday.
The finalists will be expected to pitch their ideas to executives from Microsoft, Evernote and Nokia who will comprise the jury and select the overall winner. In addition to the all-expense paid trip to Silicon Valley, the winner will participate in SWELL’s innovation tour and intensive training program which will focus on business development and
exposure to investment opportunities.
Mike Chen, Founder of SWELL, expressed great optimism at the development with his words; “We are quite excited to be holding our inaugural SWELL awards in Africa and partnering with DEMO Africa to offer global visibility to African startups through the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Our innovation Tour and soft landing program is particularly suited for African startups as they are constantly leapfrogging technology iterations and we are confident that we can leverage our relationship with DEMO to build and manage a steady pipeline of innovative African startups in Silicon Valley.”
DEMO Africa is one of the flagship initiatives of LIONS@frica designed to connect African startups to the global ecosystem, thus gaining exposure, publicity and proper positioning. It’s Executive Director, Harry Hare, commented on the partnership between DEMO Africa and SWELL saying both organizations form a synergy that accelerates the achievement of their joint goals.
“SWELL’s global innovation partnership and corporate network is a perfect platform for us to accelerate the growth of the most promising African startups. We are glad to be working with organizations such as SWELL whose passion for emerging technology and focus on supporting grass root entrepreneurship perfectly aligns with DEMO’s mission in Africa,” he said.

By Emmanuel Iruobe