Crowdfunding is now working at scale… and at the moment there are three campaigns underway for fledglings, including one that covers 27 African fledglings.
wefunder.com/arqlite
wefunder.com/shift.labs
wefunder.com/africaeats
There are so many incredible stories to share at Africa Eats, the investment holding company spun out of Fledge in 2020. Here is a sampling of the type of solutions we’ve invested in. Homegrown, for-profit solutions with measurable impacts lessening hunger and poverty across Africa.
For more stories, listen to The Opportunity is Africa, a podcast brought to you by Africa Eats
With the pandemic all of the Fledge accelerator programs moved online. To take advance of that format, The Land Accelerator Africa invited nearly 100 companies to participate this year, rather than just 12-15 as in years past. Specifically, we invited 100 companies out of the 1,387 who applied to participate in a 12 week virtual accelerator, each receiving a $5,000 non-dilutive grant if only they...
Some entrepreneurs stand out, clearly destined to turn their vision in reality. Some entrepreneurs succeed despite the myriad of unjust hurdles of world puts in front of them. Hurdles like being born a women. A black woman. In Africa. In one of the many countries no one outside that country cares about. Start off any entrepreneur in those circumstances and 99 out of 100 will end up no better off...
A decade ago The Business Model Canvas made assumptions about business models visible. Today The Ownership Model Canvas does the same for ownership and governance. Unsurprisingly it is Start.coop that brings this tool to the world. Start.coop is the world’s first business accelerator focused on scalable cooperative companies. They have from the start questioned the common ways of doing business...
Arqlite proved out its technology and supply chains in Argentina and is now operating the first full-scale commercial facility in Los Angeles, California, USA.
And with this, you can now buy Arqlite on Amazon and Walmart, with more retailers coming soon.
arqlite.com
Yusuf is in Kenya, learning how the cookstove market works in the neighboring country.
A great example of how doing good and doing well can be both fun and rewarding.
Rwanda has one of the fast growing economies of the world and as more and more Rwandans leave poverty and enter the middle class, their demand for protein, especially meat, growth even faster. The same demand was seen over a century ago when Europe grew itself out of poverty and replicated again in Asia over the last few decades. This is the trend that led Herve Tuyishime to start Paniel Meat...
“Access to financial services is a fundamental human right“, said the founders of Ensibuuko six years ago on the Fledge Demo Day stage. The company has been helping Saving and Credit Co-ops (SACCOS) modernize their operations and helping the farmers who use those institutions for savings and loans get access to modern, mobile-enabled financial services. Thanks to FCA Investments...
The Land Accelerator Africa was the original of what is now three Land Accelerators operating around the world, all operated by World Resources Institute (a.k.a. WRI), all focused on restorative agriculture. Given the pandemic this session is different than others. Historically we’ve invited 10-15 companies to participate. For this session we’ve invited the top 100 applicants. 100 out...