COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which continues to have a devastating impact on SMMEs, youth and women-owned businesses have exacerbated these weaknesses. Youth unemployment levels continue to remain very high due to the slowing down of the country’s economic growth, especially when compounded with broader economic fall-out from COVID-19. South African youth entrepreneurs face the similar challenges as their counterpart in the entire continent: they are hindered by a lack of access to sufficient capital, markets, poor marketing and branding skills, lack of access to suitable infrastructure (including working space and ICT), as well as business management and educational skills.

In celebration of Africa Day, we will be hosting a webinar titled ‘How African Entrepreneurs Thrived During the Pandemic and Avenues of Investment Opportunities’. We have invited African entrepreneurship ecosystem role-players to discuss their roles in ensuring that entrepreneurs thrive. Furthermore, because funding is one of the prominent and obvious challenges, we will be joined by an Angel Investor who will discuss investment opportunities on the continent.

Startup Huddle is a program that builds local startup communities while crowd-sourcing advice and support, one entrepreneur at a time. Run by the Global Entrepreneurship Network, it consists of monthly, if not weekly, gatherings of local community and business leaders, founders, ecosystem builders, investors and others interested in helping startups in their community.

Startup Huddle is a program that builds local startup communities while crowd-sourcing advice and support, one entrepreneur at a time. Run by the Global Entrepreneurship Network, it consists of monthly, if not weekly, gatherings of local community and business leaders, founders, ecosystem builders, investors and others interested in helping startups in their community.

We have seen how African startups have made a significant contribution in the tech space despite the challenges the continent has faced and the recent covid-19 pandemic. During this intense period, we have seen several startups fail and some pivoting in a different direction in order to thrive. One of those success stories is that of Kolawole Olajide and Bridgelabs.
Join our Masterclass session on the 10th of February as the Bridgelabs founder, Kolawole Olajide discusses his interpretation of Africa’s growth trajectory within the innovation and tech industry given his successful background in the space.

Post-Covid Early Recovery Grant 2021. Seed Grant Funding for Small-Scale Female-owned Businesses