https://youtu.be/DN80WFiiRkA Cascador, an accelerator for mid-stage entrepreneurs in Africa who are scaling mission-driven companies, has announced the opening of its 2024 application cycle, with applications closing on April 30, 2024. Entering its sixth year, Cascador has successfully elevated dozens of entrepreneurs and their companies through a unique blend of education, mentoring, pitch training and personalised support, driving over $55M USD in capital raised by past Cascador fellows. 2024 is the first year that Cascador is offering a professional development stipend of $5,000 USD to each participating entrepreneur accepted into the cohort. Main highlights of the accelerator are: Start/ end dates: November 4-8, 2024…
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Aishetu Fatima Dozie (Founder, Bossy Cosmetics) 📸 Aishetu/ LinkedIn Aishetu Fatima Dozie is the founder of Bossy Cosmetics, a hyper-growth independent beauty company that inspires, empowers, and champions ambitious working women. And she’s ecstatic to share that Bossy Cosmetics Inc. is now available at Nordstrom! Says Ms. Dozie: “It’s been such fun times growing up as a human, brand founder, and business leader. What a journey and a privileged one at that”. As Bossy Cosmetics turns 5 on International Women’s Day 2024, Aishetu adds: “A HUGE thank you to everyone who’s shopped our products, written us hundreds of great reviews, told their friends…
Chef Juliet ‘Juls’ Aigbe (Founder, Cakeflair) In order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) goal 2 &12, Chef Juliet Aigbe (Founder, Cakeflair) kicked off an impact community group where together with other women, she shares knowledge on baking, and advocates for the use of Millet. She says: “These other women ( and a number of men, Lol) are not necessarily bakers but love baking and interested in backward integration. “We hope to hit 10,000 baker-moms by 2025. 🎥 Juliet Aigbe “If you have never used your oven, fryer or kitchen gadgets significantly, this is a networking group…
One of the Global Startups Awards Africa 2023 winners, Zofi Cash (Uganda), is revolutionising the way salaried individuals access their wages The Global Start-up Awards Africa (GSA Africa) 2024 is now open for entries, and urges African innovators, start-ups and ecosystem enablers dedicated to solving critical global challenges to submit their entries. Aligned with the SDGs, the 2024 categories include green technology, health technology, mobility and logistics, agriculture tech, financial tech and women in tech. This year also sees the debut of the youth start-up category, which focuses on start-ups led by visionary founders under the age of 26. The competition has…
KUMULUS Co-Founders (L-R): Iheb Triki (CEO) and Mohamed Ali Abid (CTO) Startup KUMULUS WATER is on a mission to ensure universal access to clean drinking water by developing and manufacturing atmospheric water generators (AWGs) – machines that turn humidity into fresh drinking water. Its AWGs can be deployed anywhere, plugged into electricity or PV panels, with water produced at the click of a button. Each machine is capable of providing an average of 30 liters of mineralised drinking water daily, up to the standards of the WHO and EU for water potability. There are approximately 2 billion people on the planet without…
Ddesigned to empower Nigerians with in-demand digital skill, the DigitalForAllChallenge 2.0 is a unique programme that offers comprehensive learning tracks in Cybersecurity, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing, and Software Development. Participants will benefit from the guidance of industry experts, interactive workshops, and a vibrant community of learners. The challenge is segmented into three distinct categories: Young Learners (Ages 12-18) Youth Category (Basic and Intermediate) – (Ages 19-45) Civil Servants Each category has its own set of rewards. The winner in each category will be awarded a cash prize of ₦10 million, while the first runner-up will receive ₦7.5 million. The second…
Back (L-R): Robin van Reenen (Director Business Development, Mastercard), Federico von Bary Landesmann (Co-founder, SAVA) Front (L-R): Gabriel Swanepoel (Country Manager Southern Africa, Mastercard), Kola Olajide (CEO, SAVA) Mastercard and Johannesburg-based fintech company SAVA have announced a partnership that will support small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) through innovative payments technology and infrastructure. The Mastercard-SAVA collaboration supports and reiterates Mastercard’s financial inclusion pledge to bring 50 million SMMEs worldwide into the digital economy by 2025. Through the partnership, the two entities will provide small businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt with an online platform, powered by SAVA’s Payment…
Bfree Co-Founders (L-R): Chukwudi Enyi (COO), (Julian Flosbach (CEO) , Moses Enmor (HOP) Bfree, a Nigerian fintech company specialising in debt collection, has raised $2.95 million in a bid to expand its services across Africa and develop innovative debt collection solutions. Led by Capria Ventures, this funding round brings the company’s total funding to $6.5 million, including a previously undisclosed bridge round of $1.1 million secured in 2023. Founded in 2020 to revolutionise the debt collection landscape in Africa by offering a more ethical and automated approach to business, Bfree’s debt collection methods include a self-service platform for borrowers to…
MDaaS Global, a health company focused on providing modern diagnostic services across Africa, has raised $3 million, successfully following through on its mission to improve access to quality healthcare services in underserved communities. As a result of this recent funding round led by Consonance Investment Managers (with participation from other notable investors, including Techstars, FINCA Ventures, and Future Africa), the $3 million investment will be deployed towards expanding MDaaS Global’s operations across Nigeria and other African markets, thereby addressing the healthcare infrastructure gaps prevalent in many African countries. Expansion plans will cover the opening of new diagnostic centres, investment in…
MTN Foundation (the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of MTN Nigeria) has announced its plans to invest a total of N600 million to directly benefit 1,000 female entrepreneurs in the second iteration of its Y’ellopreneur project, whose objective is to create employment and enhance entrepreneurship amongst women through capacity building and access to capital. Some of the support vehicles include loans, grants, and advisory services in order to achieve long-term business sustainability. Odunayo Sanya (Executive Director, MTN Foundation) Speaking yesterday at the launch of Phase 2 of Y’ellopreneur, Odunayo Sanya (Executive Director, MTN Foundation) reiterated that Y’ellopreneur Phase 2 would provide…