Societies have challenges to solve. And someone has to solve them. Wealth creation considering the SDG`s is paramount to positive and inclusive development in Africa. Though, aid has proven to be ineffective. A new paradigm where change comes from within societies and communities requires confidence, skills, and resources to materialize. VilCap has shown in 2019 that 90% of investments went to startups with expat Co-Founders. Entrepreneurship is challenged to drive inequality. We have done a deep-dive into where so many African problem-solvers will come from in emerging countries: The universities. University-based African entrepreneurship support is not well-coordinated and executed. StartHub has built viable pathways for African student entrepreneurs to build ventures. For those startups to have an impact, they must be innovative, scalable, and change systems. We support African entrepreneurs to be the changemakers they can be.
Why StartHub supports African innovation and entrepreneurship
Our vision for entrepreneurship in Africa
Our vision is to “support entrepreneurs and changemakers to build scalable and innovative businesses that improve lives.”
We support with literally all they lack: Training, encouragement, access to finance, mentoring. We work with entrepreneurs and changemakers as they are change-agents who know their contexts to bring about positive development. Scalability is key for more impact in all approaches where impact is not systemically reached. StartHub believes in innovation as a broad term for new applied solutions from tech to organizational structures or better processes. And we work with African startups that have positive impact on lives in the broad sense of sustainability – such that are not harmful to people or environment.
We work on becoming an Africa-wide university-based entrepreneurship movement. StartHub looks at boosting changemakers from a systemic lense: With African universities, StartHub builds integrated entrepreneurship programs. Our content is used in class and certificate programs. Our student clubs orgnaize engagements and events. Our StartHub trainers are local entrepreneurs who pass on practical know-how to students. This decentral approach enables us to add the function of entrepreneurship support at African universities. It allows scale as we only create content, qualify trainers, and support the setup of these structures.
Meet the team making it happen!
